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THE BIRTH OF
YUGOSLAVIA

BY

HENRY BAERLEIN

VOLUME I

LONDON
LEONARD PARSONS
DEVONSHIRE STREET

_First Published 1922_
_[All Rights Reserved]_

LEONARD PARSONS LTD.

     Portions of this book which deal with Yugoslav-Albanian
     affairs have appeared in the _Fortnightly Review_ and,
     expanded from there, in a volume entitled _A Difficult
     Frontier_.




NAMES AND PRONUNCIATION


The original Serbo-Croat names of the Dalmatian towns and islands have
been commonly supplanted on the German-made maps by later Italian
names. But as the older ones are those which are at present used in
daily speech by the vast majority of the inhabitants, we shall not be
accused of pedanticism or of political bias if we prefer them to the
later versions. We therefore in this book do not speak of Fiume but of
Rieka, not of Cattaro but of Kotor, and so forth. In other parts a
greater laxity is permissible, since no false impression is conveyed
by using the non-Slav version. Thus we have preferred the more
habitual Belgrade to the more correct Beograd, and the Italian Scutari
to the Albanian Shqodra. The Yugoslavs themselves are too deferential
towards the foreign nomenclature of their towns. Thus if one of them
is talking to you of Novi Sad he will almost invariably add, until it
grows rather wearisome, the German and the Magyar forms: Neu Satz and
Uj Videk.

These names and those of persons have been generally spelt in
accordance with Croat orthography--that is to say, with the Latin
alphabet modified in order to reproduce all the sounds of the
Serbo-Croatian language. This script, with its diacritic marks, was
scientifically evolved at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The
chief points about it that we have to remember are that c is
pronounced as if written ts, ć as if written tch, č is
pronounced ch, š is pronounced sh, and j is pronounced y. So the
Montenegrin towns Cetinje, Podgorica and Nikšić are pronounced
as if written Tsetinye, Podgoritsa and Nikshitch, while Pančevo is
pronounced Panchevo. It will be seen that this matter is not very
complicated. But we have not in every case employed the Croat script.
We have not spoken in this book of Jugoslavia but of Yugoslavia, since
that has come to be the more familiar form.

The full list of Croat letters, in so far as they differ from the
English alphabet, is as follows:

        c, whose English value is ts.
        ć,   "     "      "       tch.
        č,   "     "      "       ch, as in church.
        š,   "     "      "       sh.
        ž,   "     "      "       s, as in measure.
       dž,   "     "      "       j, as in James.
gj (or dj),  "     "      "       j,     "   "
        j,   "     "      "       y, as in you.
       lj,   "     "      "       li, as in million.
       nj,   "     "      "       ni, as in opinion.




PREFACE


On a mild February afternoon I was waiting for the train at a wayside
station in north-western Banat. So unimportant was that station that
it was connected neither by telegraph nor telephone with any other
station, and thus there was no means of knowing how long I would have
to wait. The movements of the train in those parts could never, so I
gathered, be foretold, and on that afternoon it was uncertain whether
a strike had prevented it from leaving New-Arad, the starting-point.
Occasionally the rather elegant stationmaster, and occasionally the
porter with the round, disarming face, raised their voices in
prophecy, but they were increasingly unable--so far, at least, as I
was concerned--to modify the feelings of dullness that were caused by
the circumstances and by the dreary nature of the surroundings: a
plain with several uninteresting little lakes upon it. There was time
enough for meditation--I was wondering if I would ever understand the
people of the Balkans. One hour and then another slipped away, and the
lakes began to be illuminated by the setting sun. A handful of
prospective travellers and their friends were also waiting, and as one
of them produced a violin we all began to dance the Serbian Kolo,
which is performed by an indefinite number of people who have to be
hand-in-hand, irrespective of sex, forming in this way a straight line
or a circle or a serpent-like series of curves. They go through
certain simple evolutions, into which more or less energy and
sprightliness are introduced. The stationmaster looked on approvingly
and then decided to join us, and after a little time he was followed
by the porter. Our violinist was in excellent form, so that we
continued dancing until some of us were as crimson as the sun, and
presently, while I was resting, what with the beauty of the scene and
the exhilaration of the dance, I found myself thinking that, after
all, I might within a reasonable time understand these people. Then a
new arrival, a middle-aged, benevolent-looking woman with a basket on
her arm, came past me.

"Dobro veče," said I. ["Good-evening."]

"Živio," said she. ["May you live long."]

Nevertheless, I hope in this book to give a description of how the
Yugoslavs, brothers and neighbours and tragically separated from one
another for so many centuries, made various efforts to unite, at least
in some degree. But for about fifteen centuries the greater number of
Yugoslavs were unable to liberate themselves from their alien rulers;
not until the end of the Great War were these dominations overthrown,
and the kindred peoples, the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, put at last
before the realization of their dreams--the dreams, that is to say, of
some of their poets and statesmen and bishops and philologists, as
well as of certain foreigners. But listen to this, by the censorious
literateur who contributes the "Musings without Method" to _Maga_: "We
do not envy the ingenious gentlemen," says he, "who invented the two
new States Czecho-Slovakia and Jugo-Slavia. Their composite names
prove their composite characters. That they will last long beneath the
fanciful masks which have been put upon them we do not believe." Even
so might some uninstructed person in Yugoslavia or South Slavia
proceed to wash his hands of that ingenious man who invented _Maga's_
home, North Britain. I see that our friend in the following number of
_Maga_ (March 1920) says that foreign affairs are "a province far
beyond his powers or understanding." But he is talking of Mr. Lloyd
George.

Our account of mediæval times will be brief, only so much in fact as
is needed for a comprehension of the present. In approaching our own
day, the story will become more and more detailed. If it be objected
that the details, in so far as they detract from the conduct of
Yugoslavia's neighbours, might with advantage have been painted with
the hazy, quiet colours that you give to the excursions and alarms of
long ago, one may reply that this book is intended to depict the world
in which the Yugoslavs have, after all these centuries, joined one
another and the frame of mind which consequently glows in them.

One cannot on this earth expect that a new State, however belated and
however inevitable, will be formed without a considerable amount of
friction, both external and internal. Perhaps, owing to the number of
not over-friendly States with which they are encompassed, the
Yugoslavs will manage to waive some of their internal differences, and
to show that they are capable, despite the confident assertions of
some of their neighbours and the croakings of some of themselves, of
establishing a State that will weather for many a year the storms
which even the League of Nations may not be competent to banish from
South-Eastern Europe. A certain number of people, who seem to expect
us to take them seriously, assert that an English writer is
disqualified from passing adverse comment on Italy's imperialistic
aims because the British Empire has received, as a result of the War,
some Turkish provinces and German colonies. It is said that, in view
of these notorious facts, the Italian Nationalists and their friends
cannot bear to be criticized by the pens of British authors and
journalists. The fallacy in logic known as the _argumentum ad hominem_
becomes a pale thing in comparison with this new _argumentum ad
terram_. If a passionless historian of the Eskimos had given his
attention to the Adriatic, I believe he would have come to my
conclusions. But then it might be said of him that as for half the
year his land is swathed in darkness, it would be unseemly for him to
discuss a country which is basking in the sun.

Another consummation--though this will to-day find, especially in
Serbia, a great many opponents, whose attitude, following the
deplorable events of the Great War, can cause us no surprise--is the
adhesion, after certain years, of Bulgaria to the Yugoslav State. I
wrote these words a few months ago; they are already out of date. The
general opinion in Serbia is voiced by a Serbian war-widow, who,
writing in _Politika_, one of the newspapers of Belgrade, replied to
Stamboulüsky, the Bulgarian peasant Premier, who was always
uncompromisingly opposed to the fratricidal war with Serbia. He had
been saying that the Serbs and other Yugoslavs prefer to postpone the
reconciliation until "the grass grows over the graves of their women
and children whom our officials destroyed"; and this war-widow
answered that it was not necessary for the grass to grow, but that
they should condemn the culprits by a regular court, as prescribed in
the treaty. "Fulfil the undertaking you have assumed, for only so
shall we know that you will fulfil other undertakings in the future."
If it had not been for the Great Powers, especially Russia and
Austria, the union of Serbia and Bulgaria might have occurred long
ago. Wise persons, such as Prince Michael of Serbia and the British
travellers, Miss Irby (Bosnia's lifelong benefactress) and her
relative, Miss Muir Mackenzie, had this aim in view during the sixties
of last century. So had a number of other excellent folk, who
recognized that the two people were naturally drawn to one another.
"The hatred between the two people is a fact which is as saddening in
the thought for the future as in the record of the past, but it is a
fact to ignore which is simply a mark of incompetence. The two nations
are antipathetic ..." says Mr. A. H. E. Taylor in his _The Future of
the Southern Slavs_, a painstaking if rather clumsy book (London,
1917), in which we are shown that the writer is well acquainted with
general history. But in the opinion of an erudite Serb, to whom I
showed this passage, Mr. Taylor knows nothing of Serb and Bulgar under
the Turks. There is no single document nor anything else that speaks
of hatred between them. On the contrary, they were always on friendly
terms. The antagonisms of the Middle Ages, as Mr. Taylor surely knows,
were the work of rulers who paid no attention to the national will;
there was at that time no national consciousness, and just as a
Serbian would wage war with a Bulgarian prince, so would he do battle
with a Croat or with another Serbian ruler. Mr. Taylor talks of "the
almost constant state of warfare between Serbs and Bulgars...," but he
does not mention that there were many cases during the late war in
which the men showed friendliness to one another. He may argue that if
a soldier calls out "Brother" to his foe and subsequently slays him
there is not much to be said for his friendliness, but surely that is
to draw no distinction between what is the soldier's pleasure and his
business. "Nothing," observes Mr. Taylor very truly, "nothing in the
Balkan Peninsula is so desirable as the laying aside of the feud." He
may take it that this feud has been aroused and maintained among the
_intelligentsia_ and for political reasons, with Macedonia in the
forefront. I think he would not be so severe on those who are
"ignorant apparently that the mutual animosity has its roots deep down
in the history and historical consciousness of Serb and Bulgar" if he
remembered that the Bulgars wanted Michael for their prince, and if he
had been present at the siege of Adrianople, where the Serbian and
Bulgarian soldiers, in their eagerness to fraternize, took to speaking
their respective languages incorrectly, the Serb dropping his cases
and the Bulgar his article, in the hope that they would thus make
themselves more easily understood. It seems to me not only more
advisable but more rational to ponder upon such incidents than upon
the idle controversies as to which army was the most deserving; and I
do not think it is evidence of any widespread Bulgarian animosity
because a certain official decided to charge the Serbian Government a
fee for conveying back to Serbia the corpses of their soldiers.

With regard to the two languages, the differences between them will
matter no more than does the difference between Serbo-Croatian and
Slovene. The Serb-Croat-Slovene State has been astonishingly little
incommoded by the fact that the Slovene language is quite distinct,
the two tongues being only in a moderate degree mutually intelligible.
The Slovenes have never been exposed to the influence either of
Byzantium or of the Turks, so that their language is free from the
orientalisms which abound in the southern dialects. But it is curious
to note[1] that many of the Slovene archaisms of form and structure,
such as the persistence of the "v" for "u" and the final -l of the
past participle, which have disappeared from Serbo-Croat, have been
preserved in the dialects of Macedonia. The Bulgarian language, the
south-eastern Serbian dialects, as well as Roumanian and Albanian,
have certain grammatical peculiarities, through being influenced by
the language of the Romanized Thraco-Illyrian peoples with whom they
merged. Even Montenegro was to some degree influenced by this process,
having lost one or two cases, such as the locative. In Serbia one uses
seven cases, the Montenegrin generally contents himself with about
five, and in some dialects they are all discarded.... The amount of
Turanian, Petcheneg and other undesirable blood in the Bulgars does
not--let the two or three eccentric Bulgars say what they
will--prevent them being far more Yugoslav than anything else.
Professor Cvijić, the famous Rector of Belgrade University, has
made personal examinations in Bulgaria, and is of the opinion that a
great part of that people, for instance, at Trnovo in the middle of
Bulgaria, is physically and spiritually very near to the Serbs. The
Mongol influence, he thinks, is so scattered that it is very difficult
to see.

Unhappily, however, in the last thirty or forty years an enormous
amount of hatred has been piled up between Serb and Bulgar; things
have happened which we as outsiders can more easily forget than those
and the orphans of those who have suffered. Atrocities have taken
place; international commissions have recorded some of them and
non-Balkan writers have produced a library of lurid and, almost
always, strictly one-sided books about them. I suggest that these
gentlemen would have been better employed in translating the passages
wherein Homer depicts precisely the same atrocities. Whatever may seem
good to Balkan controversialists, let us of the West rather try, for
their sake and for ours, to bring these two people together. We have
good foundations on which to build; every Bulgar will tell you that he
is full of admiration of the Serbian army, and the Serbs will speak in
a similar strain of the Bulgars. Also the Serbs will tell you that, no
matter what else they may be able to do, they are, as compared with
the Bulgars, quite incompetent in the diffusion of propaganda; while
the Bulgars will explain to you that in propaganda the Serbs are
immensely their superiors. (Balkan propaganda does not confine itself
to using, with violence, the sword and the pen. In its higher flights
it will, in a disputed district, bury ancient-looking stones with
suitable inscriptions. It will go beyond the simple changes in the
termination of the surnames of those who come under its dominion; the
name upon a tombstone will be made to end, according to circumstances,
in "off" or "vitch," sometimes in the Roumanian "esco" or the Greek
"opoulos." If this is known to the departed, one would like to learn
how it affects them. A great deal of energy has been brought to bear
in the production of official books which place on record the
repugnant details of all the crimes that have ever been imagined by
men or ghouls, which crimes, so say the books of nation A, have been
committed by the incredible monsters of nation B. At times, from
motives of economy, the same photographs have been used by both
nations--an idea which in 1920 was adopted in Hungary, where an artist
conceived a poster showing a child with uplifted finger saying to its
mother in solemn warning: "Mother, remember me; vote for a Social
Democrat." This poster was forbidden by the censor, and, a few days
afterwards, appeared on all street corners as that of the Christian
Socialist party. People of the Balkans found that Western Europeans
were impressed by figures, so that they issued lists of schools whose
pupils were more numerous than the total population of the villages in
which they were situated. Frequently a village would be stated, on the
sworn testimony of its most respected inmates, to be exclusively
filled with persons say of nation A. Not for a moment would it be
admitted that the population might perhaps be mixed. And very
possibly, on going to investigate, the Western European would discover
that the village was entirely uninhabited and had been so for many
years.... We must also have some understanding of the old Balkan
humour if we are not to resent, for example, that story which they
tell of a Bulgarian Minister who happened to be sojourning last year
in Yugoslavia at a time when a great memorial service was being held
for ninety-nine priests whom the Bulgars had assassinated during their
occupation of Serbia in the European War. This Minister cherishes the
hope that his country and Yugoslavia will bury the hatchet. "How
unfortunate," said he, "are these recriminations. I shall have
pleasure in sending them ninety-nine priests, whom they can kill, and
then we can be good friends.")

Thus we have two points of mutual esteem. The vast majority of people
in Belgrade and Sofia are not chauvinist; let them close their ears to
the wild professors who, in their spare time, busy themselves with
writing books and discoursing on politics, a task for which they are
imperfectly fitted. One must naturally make allowances for these small
countries which have been so sparsely furnished hitherto with men of
education that the Government considered it must mobilize them all.
Thus the professors found themselves enlisted in the service of the
State. Unluckily--to give examples would be painful--it too often
happened that the poor professor damaged irretrievably his reputation
and held up the State to ribald laughter. Those who belong to an old,
cultured nation are not always cognizant of the petty atmosphere, to
say nothing of the petty salaries, which is to-day the common lot of
Balkan professors. (A really eminent man, who, for twenty years has
been a professor, not merely a teacher, at Belgrade University
receives a very much smaller salary than that which the deputies have
voted for themselves.) Occasionally these professors must be moved by
feelings similar to those that were entertained by the Serbs of 1808,
who, having thrown off the Turkish yoke which they were resolved never
to bear again, "earnestly expressed, and more than once," according to
Count Romanzoff,[2] "their own will which induced them to beg the
Emperor Alexander to admit them to the number of his subjects." A
resolute old man, a Balkan savant of my acquaintance--he told me he
was a savant--said one day that before all else he was a patriot,
meaning by this that if in the course of his researches he came across
a fact which to his mind was injurious for the past, present or future
of his native land he would unhesitatingly sweep that fact into
oblivion, and he seemed to be amazed that I should doubt the morality
of such a procedure. Bristling with scorn, he refused to give me a
definition of the word "patriotism," and I am sure that, if he knows
his Thoreau, he does not for a moment believe that he is amongst those
who "love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with
the spirit which may still animate their clay. Patriotism is a maggot
in their heads." May the people of Serbia and Bulgaria rather listen
to such men as Nicholai Velimirović, Bishop of Žiča,[3]
who--to speak only of his sermons and lectures in our language--lives
in the memory of so many in Great Britain and the United States on
account of his wonderful eloquence, his sincerity, his profound
patriotism, and the calm heights from which he surveys the future. For
those who think with him, the Serbs, in uniting with the Croats, have
already surmounted a more serious obstacle. They believe that for
three reasons their union with the Bulgars is a more natural one: they
practise the same religion, they use the same Cyrillic alphabet and
their civilization, springing from Byzantium, has been identical. The
two people are bound to each other by the great Serbian, Saint Sava,
who strove to join them and who died at Trnovo in Bulgaria. Vladislav,
the Serbian prince, asked for his body; Assen begged that the Bulgars
might be allowed to keep it, but, when the Serbs insisted, a most
remarkable procession set out from Trnovo, bearing to his homeland the
remains of him whom the Bulgars called "our Saint." ... If, then, the
two people will for a few years demand that the misguided professors
shall confine themselves to their original functions--and, likewise,
those students who sit at the professors' feet--one may hope that in a
few years the miserable past will be buried and all the Yugoslavs
united in one State. The time has vanished when Serbia and Bulgaria
stood, as it were in a ring, face to face with one another, paying far
more attention to the disputes of the moment than to those great
unifying forces which we have mentioned. But now Serbia is a part of
Yugoslavia, which has to deal with a greater Italy, a greater Roumania
and others. And the question as to whether a certain town or district
is to be Serbian or Bulgarian sinks into the background.

Fortunately, in the Balkans--where one is nothing if not personal--you
can express yourself concerning another gentleman with a degree of
liberty that in Western Europe would be thought unpardonable. And so,
if the Serbs and the Bulgars will in the main follow the tracks of
their far-sighted leaders, they need not quite suppress their
criticism of each other. No great animosity is aroused by such a
statement as was made to me with regard to a dispossessed Macedonian
prelate, who had told me that he had appealed to the Archbishop of
Canterbury in the hope that he would assist him to return to his
diocese. I asked a member of another Balkan nationality whether he
knew this ancient cleric of the extremely venerable aspect, and
whether he knew what kind of political and religious propaganda had
brought about his downfall. "I know all about that old ruffian," he
replied. "He stole over fifty pigs and one hundred sheep, and about
twenty-five cows and 200 lb. of fat." Anyhow, if his lordship had
heard that these accusations had been repeated in many places, he
would have been far less indignant than if they had been printed in
some unread newspaper or obscure pamphlet.

Now if the local writers cease from indulging their national
partisanship--and God knows they have no lack of material--then
perhaps the time will come when foreign publicists and politicians,
who keep one eye upon the Balkans, will be able to speak well about
the particular country which they affect without speaking ill about
the neighbouring countries, concerning which, it is possible, they
know less. Of course, there are a number of real Balkan experts in
various countries, judicious writers who will be gratefully mentioned
in this book. And there are people, such as Mr. Harold E. Goad, the
vehement pro-Italian writer, who are quite amusing. This gentleman
said in the _Fortnightly Review_ (May 1922) that once he used to hold
romantic views of Balkan politics, but now has ascertained that they
are "usually plotted, move by move, in the coffee-shops of petty
capitals. Intrigue, bribery and calumny, personal jealousy and racial
prejudice are the ordinary means with which the game is played." How
different from the rest of Europe, where intrigue, etc., are
conspicuously absent; and the explanation seems to be that wine and
beer are unlike coffee, which it may be quite impossible to drink
without remembering the poison which so many furtive fingers have
dropped into it. And it would be rank ingratitude if I omitted the
Italian Admiral Millo, though he was injudicious. After he had been at
his post for four months, with the resounding title of Governor of
Dalmatia and of the Dalmatian Islands and of the islands of Curzola,
he told me that he had found it most fascinating to motor through
Dalmatia's rocky hinterland, where the natives had the dignified air
of ancient Roman senators and even greeted you in Latin. This was
rather a startling statement. "Oh yes," said the Admiral, with his
aristocratic, bearded face wearing an expression of even keener
intelligence than usual, "I can assure you," quoth he, "that the
peasants say 'Ave.' I heard them quite distinctly." It was perhaps
inconsiderate of those worthy Croats not to shout with greater
clearness the word "Zdravo!" ["Good luck!"] in order to prevent the
Admiral from riding off with a confused hearing of the second
syllable. A certain excellent dispatch of his--of which more
anon--makes him a writer on the Balkans. I know not whether he
addressed to his Government a dispatch on the above discovery, thus
intensifying the Italian resolve to cling to Dalmatia. In that case
his knowledge was unfortunate, but otherwise it is surely as
delightful as, up here among the tree-clad mountains, are the
glow-worms that go darting through the night.

BLAGOVEŠTENJE MONASTERY, CENTRAL SERBIA.

    FOOTNOTES:

    [Footnote 1: Cf. _The Near East_, October 6, 1921.]

    [Footnote 2: _Observations of Count Romanzoff_,--Petrograd,
    March 16, 1808,--Concerning the negotiations for the division
    of Turkey, as to which he treated with the French Ambassador;
    being Document No. 263 of the Excerpts from the Paris
    Archives relating to the History of the first Serbian
    Insurrection. Collected (Belgrade, 1904) by the learned
    statesman and charming man, Dr. Michael Gavrilović, now the
    Minister of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes at
    the Court of St. James.]

    [Footnote 3: This, the most ancient diocese in Serbia, takes
    its name from the monastery of Žiča, near Kraljevo, which was
    built by St. Sava between 1222 and 1228. He made it his
    archiepiscopal residence, and here the Serbian sovereigns
    were crowned. It is now partly in a ruined condition, the
    encircling wall having almost entirely vanished. For each
    coronation a new entrance was made through this structure and
    was afterwards walled up. Bishop Nicholai has now been
    transferred to the more difficult diocese of Ochrida and is,
    at the same time, Bishop of the Serbs in America.]




CONTENTS OF VOLUME I

                                                                 PAGE
PREFACE                                                            9

INTRODUCTION: THE TRAGEDY OF A FRONTIER                           23

    I. GLORY AND DISASTER (EARLIEST DAYS TO THE BATTLE
       OF KOSSOVO)                                                26

   II. FIGHTING THE DARKNESS (BATTLE OF KOSSOVO TO THE
       APPEARANCE OF KARA GEORGE)                                 50

  III. BUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS: NAPOLEON AND STROSSMAYER         90

   IV. THE SHIFTING SANDS OF MACEDONIA (1876-1914)               165

    V. THE EUROPEAN WAR (1914-1918)                              225

       INDEX                                                     301




THE BIRTH OF YUGOSLAVIA


INTRODUCTION


THE TRAGEDY OF A FRONTIER

Kiepert, the famous geographer, was able, as the result of his
diligent researches and explorations, to correct many errors in former
ethnological maps; but in the map of the Balkan Peninsula, which he
published in 1870, the country between Kustendil, Trn and Vranja is
represented by a white space. And if the people who dwell in these
wild, narrow valleys had been overlooked as thoroughly by subsequent
Congresses and Frontier Commissions they would have been most
grateful. They only asked--this well-built, stubborn race--that one
should leave them to their own devices in their homes among the
mountains where the lilac grows. They asked that one should leave them
with their ancient superstitions, such as that of St. Petka, who
inhabited a cavern high above the present road from Trn, while St.
Therapon, so they say, lived by himself upon a neighbouring rock.
Inside the cavern now the water drips continuously and is collected in
large bowls; these are St. Petka's tears, which are particularly
beneficial, say the natives, for afflicted eyes. But though this
region is so poor that, towards the end of the Turkish régime and
during the war of Bulgarian liberation and also in the winter of
1879-80, the people were compelled, through lack of flour, to use a
sort of "white earth," _bela zemja_, yet this land was coveted, and
now the maps no longer show an empty space but a variety of names and
a frontier line. From the nomenclature we perceive that the region was
visited of old by people who were not Slavs--such were those who gave
to a mountain the name of Ruj, to a village the name of Erul, and to a
river the name of Jerma, which has been explained as being derived
from the Lydian Hermos, the river of St. Therapon's birthplace. The
names of Latin colouring may either be memorials of the Romanized
Thracians or else may refer to the mediæval Catholics, whether Saxon
miners or travelling merchants. But there does not seem in the veins
of the present population to be much trace of these other settlers or
wayfarers; at any rate, the Slavs do not differ appreciably among
themselves, and the drawing of a frontier line has been a peculiar
hardship.

One of the greatest misfortunes of the nineteenth century was the
creation of separate Serbian and Bulgarian kingdoms, wherein there was
so small an ethnological difference between these two branches of the
Yugoslavs; and in those districts where a frontier runs one sees
especially how criminal it was to make this separation. Balkan
philologists to-day will tell you--and even those who are in other
respects the most rabid Serbs or Bulgars--that there is really no such
thing as a Serbian and a Bulgarian language, but only groups of
Yugoslav dialects. And yet it pleased the Great Powers to prevent the
union of the two Balkan brothers. In that region with which we are
dealing the Berlin Congress attempted to draw, with very inadequate
maps, a frontier line along the watershed; and the Commissioners who
were sent to mark out this line, observing that many of the indicated
points did not coincide with the watershed, thought it would be
preferable to trace the frontier along the saddle, between the
tributaries of the Morava on one side and of the Struma and the river
of Trn on the other. As the region was, however, not uninhabited the
farmers were frequently cut off, as at Topli Dol and Preseka, from the
meadows and the forests which they had regarded always as their own.
Bismarck, speaking with indifference of "the fragments of nations that
inhabit the Balkan Peninsula," could see in the national yearning of
the Yugoslavs only a yearning for lawlessness and tumult. So he
laboured at his plan of dominating Europe with the mighty structure of
the German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian conservative empires; and if
he built it over a stream of democracy, with results that are to-day
apparent, who knows whether the statesmen of our day are not somewhere
constructing a house which to our descendants will appear equally
ridiculous? And anyhow, as we shall see, he was far from being the
only offender at the Berlin Congress. If that particular strip of
frontier had been drawn in the most unimpeachable fashion it would
still have been iniquitous.

One may object that even if the people were divided by rough-and-ready
methods, that was no reason why they should oppose each other, and
indeed a number of frontier incidents which occurred between the time
of the Congress and 1885 were not regarded, either by Serbs or by
Bulgars, as being serious obstacles to a union. But Russia and
Austria, revelling in the intrigues, continued to pull the two States
now this way and now that, and all too frequently against each other.
It can thus not be a matter of surprise if the rather inexperienced
statesmen of those little countries fell into line with the two Great
Powers and spent a good deal of their energies in assailing each
other. So blind, alas! were these statesmen that all the tears of St.
Petka would not have cured them, and now the two kindred people, so
progressive in many ways, are--to speak of each people as a
whole--further apart than when their shaggy forefathers came over the
Carpathians. It has been the fate of the Yugoslavs--Slovenes, Croats,
Serbs and Bulgars--to live for centuries beside each other and be kept
always, by foreign masters, isolated from each other. At rare
intervals, as we shall see in following their history, a person has
arisen who has tried, with altruistic or with selfish motives, to make
some sort of union of the Yugoslavs. And now we will go back to the
time when Slavs first wandered westward to the Balkans.




I

GLORY AND DISASTER

ARRIVAL OF THE SOUTHERN SLAVS--THEIR UNFORTUNATE DEMOCRATIC WAYS--TWO
EARLY STATES--ECCLESIASTICAL ROCKS--THE SLAVS AND THEIR
NEIGHBOURS--SIMEON THE BULGAR--WHAT ARE THE BULGARS?--STEPHEN
NEMANIA--THE SLOVENES ARE SUBMERGED--THE FATE OF THE CROATS--THE GLORY
OF DUBROVNIK--A GALLANT REPUBLIC--THE GLORIOUS DUŠAN--EVIL DAYS AND
THE PEOPLE'S HERO--THE "GOOD CHRISTIANS" OF BOSNIA--KOSSOVO--GATHERING
DARKNESS.


ARRIVAL OF THE SOUTHERN SLAVS

The Slavs who in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries came down from
the Carpathian Mountains were known, until the ninth century, as
Slovenes (Sloventzi);[4] and if, as is natural, the Serbs and Croats
wish to preserve their time-honoured names, they will perhaps agree to
call their whole country by the still more ancient name of Slovenia,
instead of the merely geographical and not wholly popular term
Yugoslavia. Considering that this name (Slovenija) found favour in the
eyes of their great Emperor Stephen Dušan, one would imagine that
the Serbs might adopt it in preference to the cumbrous "Kingdom of the
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes," with its unlovely abbreviation into three
letters of the alphabet. The Croats would be glad of this solution,
and thus the Yugoslavs would, unlike their relatives the Russians, the
Poles and the Czechs, have the satisfaction of living in a country
called Slovenia, the land of the Slavs.... But, although this would be
a happy solution, it seems much more probable that eventually the name
Yugoslavia will be adopted. Everyone is agreed that one inclusive
word, answering to Britain and British, is necessary. "Evo naših!"
["Here are our men!"] were the words used by the Serbs, Croats and
Slovenes as their troops marched past them in Paris during the Allied
celebration of July 1919. The Serbian Colonel of the Heiduk Velko
regiment, which was stationed at Split in 1920, and of which the other
officers were chiefly Croats, the men Moslem and Catholic, used in his
public addresses to speak of "Our kingdom." There are various
objections to the word Yugoslavia; in the first place, it was
introduced by the Austrians, who did not wish to call their subjects
Serbs and Croats; in the second place, the term is a literal
translation from the German and is against the laws of the
Serbo-Croatian language. Another, and more important objection, is
that the Bulgars, though Yugoslavs, are not included in Yugoslavia;
and perhaps the name will be officially adopted when the Bulgars join
the other Southern Slavs.


THEIR UNFORTUNATE DEMOCRATIC WAYS

These Southern Slavs did not display the same genius for organization
as the Germanic peoples or the Magyars at the period of their
respective migrations. In communities of brethren (or _bratsva_, from
the word _brat_, a brother) they had not raised up a king; but as a
compensation they possessed a lofty moral code, a religion inspired by
the worship of nature and by the principle of the immortality of the
soul. Occupying themselves with agriculture and the rearing of cattle,
it was not until they came into contact, that is to say hostile
contact, with their more organized neighbours that they were compelled
to join together under the authority of a prince, a _knez_. The bad
result of this profoundly democratic spirit was that the Slavs, not
knowing how to keep united, fell under the yoke of other nations. From
the interesting series of documents, Latin, Arabic, Byzantine and
others, which have been collected in _Monimenta Sclavenica_ by
Miroslav Premrou, notary public at Caporetto, and published in 1919 at
Ljubljana (Laibach), we can see that the Slovenes occupied a much
greater extent of territory than do their descendants of our day--"ab
ortu Vistulæ ... per immensa spatia ..." (cf. _Jordanis de orig.
Goth._ c. 5)--to beyond the Tagliamento, and from the Piave (cf.
Ibrahim Ibn-Jakub[5]) to the Adriatic, the Ægean and the Black Sea.

One of the earliest of the above-named Slovene princes was Samo, a
Slovene by adoption, who struggled in Pannonia against the Avars in
the first half of the seventh century; it happened also in the year
626 that other Slovenes, as well as the Avars, attacked
Constantinople. Both of them withdrew, the former being defeated at
sea and the latter failing under the city walls. The Avars, having
thus shown that they were vulnerable, had to bear an attack on a grand
scale made upon them by the Slovenes, this attack being more shrewdly
organized than any other transaction in which the Slovenes had as yet
engaged. And they still appeared to be reluctant to form even a
loosely knit State; they roamed about the Balkans and the adjacent
countries to the north-west, seeking for lands that were adapted to
their patriarchal organization. Not until the ninth century did they
set up what might be called Governments on the Adriatic littoral,
where they had no hostility to fear from the last remaining Romans,
who were refugees in certain towns and islands.


TWO EARLY STATES

The two most important of these Slav States were, firstly, that one,
the predecessor of our modern Croatia, which extended from the mouth
of the Raša (Arša) in Istria to the mouth of the Cetina in
central Dalmatia, and, secondly, to the south-east a principality,
afterwards called Raška, in what is now western Serbia. In a little
time the Slavs began to have relations with the towns of the Dalmatian
coast and with the islands which were nominally under the sway of
Byzantium, but in consequence of their remoteness and their exposed
position had succeeded in becoming almost independent republics.


ECCLESIASTICAL ROCKS

Now Christianity had been definitely introduced into Dalmatia in the
fourth century, but it was not until several centuries later that it
made any headway with the Slavs, of whom the Croats, in the ninth
century, were baptized by Frank missionaries. The arrival of the
Slavs, by the bye, had been sometimes looked upon with scanty favour
by the Popes: in July of the year 600 we find Gregory I. saying in a
letter to the Bishop of Salona that he was much disturbed at the news
he had just received "de Sclavorum gente, quæ vobis valde imminet,
affligor vehementer et conturbor." Similarly, the Council of Split
branded the Slav missionaries as heretics and the Slav alphabet as the
invention of the devil.[6] ... While the Croats were falling[7] under
the dominion of the Franks, the holy brothers St. Cyril and St.
Methodus, who had been born at Salonica in 863, were carrying the
first Slav book from Constantinople to Moravia, whither they travelled
at the invitation of the Prince of Moravia, Rastislav, St. Cyril going
as an apostle and theologian, St. Methodus as a statesman and
organizer. This famous book was a translation from the Greek, but it
was written in Palæo-Slav characters, the Glagolitic that were to
become so venerated that when the French kings were crowned at Reims
their oath was sworn upon a Glagolitic copy of the Gospels;[8] and the
spirit of that earliest book was also Slav: it expresses the political
and cultural resistance of Prince Rastislav against the State of the
Franks, that is, against the German nationality, of whom it was feared
that with the Cross in front of them they would trample down for ever
the political liberties of the young Slav peoples. German theologians
were giving a more and more dogmatic character to Western
Christianity, whereas the Christianity of the East was at that time
more liberal; it gathered to itself the Slavs of Raška and of the
neighbouring regions, such as southern Dalmatia, while the influence
which it exerted was so powerful that when the Croats, after
vacillating between the two Churches, finally joined that of Rome,
they took with them the old Slav liturgy that is used by them in many
places on the mainland and the islands down to this day. Thus their
Church became a national institution, and that in spite of all the
long-continued efforts of the Vatican, as also of the Venetian
Republic. The Roman Catholic hierarchy, by the way, is endeavouring to
have this liturgy made lawful in the whole of Yugoslavia; the only
opponent I met was a Jesuit at Zagreb who foresaw that the priests,
being no longer obliged to learn Latin, might indeed omit to do so.
Pope Pius X. was likewise an opponent of the Slav liturgy, because a
Polish priest told him that it would lead to Pan-Slavism and hence to
schism; but it is thought--among others by the patriotic Prince-Bishop
Jeglić of Ljubljana--that the late Pope would have given his
consent, had it not been for Austria, which recoiled from what would
have probably strengthened the Slav element. One of the cherished
policies of Austria was to utilize in every possible way the religious
differences between the Southern Slavs.


THE SLAVS AND THEIR NEIGHBOURS

But the two States formed beside the Adriatic and in Raška were not
only separated from early days by their religion; they had quite
different neighbours to deal with. In 887 the Croats imposed their
will on the Venetians, against whom they had been for some time waging
war--and not merely a defensive war--the Venetians having attacked the
country in order to despoil it of timber and of people, whom they
liked to sell in the markets of the Levant. In 887, however, after the
defeat and death of their doge, Pietro Candiano, the Venetians were
forced to pay--and paid without interruption down to the year 1000--an
annual tribute to the Croats, who in return permitted them to sail
freely on the Adriatic. Beside that sea the Croats founded new towns,
such as Šibenik (of which the Italian name is Sebenico), and
carried on an amicable intercourse with the autonomous Byzantine
towns: Iader, the picturesque modern capital which they came to call
Zadar and the Venetians Zara; Tragurium, the delightful spot which is
their Trogir and the Venetian Traù, and so forth. These friendly
relations existed both before 882 and subsequently, when the towns
agreed to pay the Croats an annual tribute, in return for which the
local provosts were confirmed in office by the rulers of Croatia. We
have plentiful evidence from the ruins of royal castles and of the
many churches built by the Slavs in this period, as well as from the
discoveries of arms and ornaments, that the people had attained to a
condition of prosperity. At the beginning of the tenth century, so we
are told by the learned emperor and historian Constantine
Porphyrogenetos, the Croatian Prince Tomislav could raise 100,000
infantry and 60,000 cavalry; he had likewise eighty large vessels,
each with a crew of forty men, at his disposal, and a hundred smaller
ships with ten to twenty men in each of them.

As for the State of Raška, protected on the south and west by
formidable mountains, and in the very centre of the Serbian tribes, it
is there that the lore and customs of the people have survived in
their purest form. Raška was the land in which the love of liberty
was always kept alive and from there the expeditions used to sally
forth whose aim, frustrated many times, it was to found a powerful
Serbian State. The chieftain, Tshaslav Kronimirović, did, as a
matter of fact, succeed in uniting his State with two others, one
being in Bosnia and the other in Zeta, which is now Montenegrin. He
even added three other provinces on the Adriatic coast; but after his
death the State was dissolved and in the course of the conflicts which
followed, the State of Zeta assumed the leadership. It had been
necessary for these Serbian rulers of Raška and Zeta to resist the
frequent assaults not only of the Byzantines but of the Bulgars.


SIMEON THE BULGAR

"Frequent assaults" is probably a correct description of what the Serb
of that period had to endure at the hands of this particular
opponent, the Bulgar. Having swarmed across the Peninsula, the Bulgar
was now in the act of consolidating a great kingdom, for this was the
magnificent epoch of the Bulgarian Tzar Simeon, whose word ran far and
wide from the Adriatic. The Bulgarian map[9] which exhibits the
Tzardom at the death of Simeon is painted in the same brown colour
from opposite Corfu right across to the Black Sea and up as far as the
mouths of the Danube, which signifies that in those parts (including,
of course, Macedonia) the word of Simeon was supreme. But the Serbian
provinces of Raška, Zeta, Bosnia and some adjoining lands are
painted brown and white, being hatched with white diagonal lines; and
this indicates very candidly that in the north-west Simeon was not
omnipotent. We are indeed told in the letterpress that "on the other
hand Simeon meanwhile took the opportunity to settle accounts with the
Serbians because of their perfidious policy, and he subjected them in
the year 924"; but doubtless this was a kind of subjection which in
925 would have to be repeated, and this would account for one of
Simeon's faithful chroniclers having made that allusion to perfidious
policy. Of the Tzar himself we are given an attractive picture: unlike
his father, Boris, who patronized Slav literature for the reason that
it made his State less permeable to Byzantine influence, Simeon had no
political object in his encouragement of native literature.[10] He was
himself a man of letters, having studied at Constantinople. He was
acquainted with Aristotle and Demosthenes, he discussed theology with
the most eminent doctors of the Church, and of positive science--or of
what was then regarded as such--he possessed everything which had
survived the great shipwreck of ancient thought. Not only did he found
monasteries and schools, but he gathered writers round him; and, in
order to stimulate them, he himself wrote original books and
translations, thus ennobling, we are told, the literary vocation in
the eyes of his rude and warlike race. He would probably have smiled
if he had known that one of his writers had attributed to him the
subjection of the Serbs; but what one would like to learn is whether
Macedonia, even then a kaleidoscope of races, was more or less
completely under the shadow and the brilliance of his sword, more or
less completely subjugated. Four centuries later the Serbs were to
have a Macedonian empire which, like Simeon's, dissolved on the death
of its founder. To these old empires the Serb and the Bulgar of our
day are looking back, and it would be interesting to know if harassed
Macedonia was calmly content to be first Bulgarian and then Serbian,
or whether it was a calm of that Eastern kind which means that a
ruler's assaults upon the people are infrequent.


WHAT ARE THE BULGARS?

And now, as the matter is in dispute, it is necessary to examine the
origin of the Bulgarian people. A band of Turanian or Bulgarian
warriors, probably not over 10,000 in number and led by one Asperouch
or Isperich, had crossed the Danube in the year 679, had subdued the
Slav tribes in those parts--for the newcomers reaped the advantage of
being a well-disciplined people--and by the end of the eighth century
had settled down in their tents of felt along the banks of the Danube.
Then, after another hundred years, in the district bounded by Varna,
Rustchuk and the Balkans, one may say that the original Turanians, a
branch of the Huns, had been absorbed by the Slavs. "The forefathers
of the Bulgars," says the great Slavist, Dr. Constantine Jireček of
Prague, in his _History of the Bulgars_, "are not the handful of
Bulgars who conquered in 679 a part of Mœsia along the Danube, but
the Slavs who much earlier had settled in Mœsia, as well as in
Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus and almost the whole Peninsula." With regard
to the retention of the name there is an analogy in France, where the
Gauls came under the subjection of German Franks, who ultimately
disappeared, but left their name to the country. So, too, the Greeks
in Turkey who call themselves Romei, the name of their former rulers,
and their language Romeica, though they are not Romans and do not
speak Latin. To such an extent have the original Bulgars been absorbed
by the Yugoslavs that even the most ancient known form of the
Bulgarian language, dating from the ninth century, retains hardly any
relics of the original Bulgarian tongue; and this tongue has in our
time, with the exception of a word or two, been entirely lost: there
is a celebrated old MS. in Moscow[11] which orientalists and
historians have pondered over and which has now been explained by the
Finnish professor Mikola and the Bulgarian professor Zlatarski to be a
chronology of Bulgarian pagan princes, of whom the first are rather
fabulous. Here and there, amid the old Slav, are strange words which
are supposed to signify Turanian chronology, cycles of lunar years.
And in a village between Šumen and Prjeslav there was found an
inscription of the Bulgarian prince Omortag (?802-830), where in the
Greek language, for the Bulgars had at that period no writing of their
own, he says that he built something; and amid the Greek there is the
word σιγορ-αλεμ, which occurs also in the above-mentioned
document and is regarded as Turanian.... What we do know about this
race is by no means so discreditable; it is true that they are reputed
to have had no great esteem for the aged, and, according to a Chinese
chronicle of the year 545, "the characters of their writing are like
those of the barbarians." They held it to be glorious to die in
battle, shameful to die of sickness. For the violation of a married
woman, as well as for the hatching of plots and rebellion, the penalty
was death, and if you seduced a girl you were compelled to pay a fine
and also to marry her. Their sense of discipline, which served them so
well in their contact with other people, was remarkably applied to
their social life; thus a stepson was under an obligation to marry his
father's widow, a nephew the widow of his uncle, and a younger brother
the widow of an elder. It may be that the two much-quoted writers who
claim that the modern Bulgars are of this race were moved more by
their admiration of such customs than by scientific scrutiny. One of
them, Christoff, who assumed the name of Tartaro-Bulgar to show that
he believed in his theories, is usually thought nowadays to have been
more of a poet than a devotee of erudition; if he had been still more
of a poet, approaching, say, Pencho Slaveikoff, we would take less
objection to his waywardness. The other champion of that ancestry is
Theodore Paneff, who showed himself a brilliant and courageous officer
during the war of 1912-1913. The fact that he was himself of Armenian
origin--he changed his name--would, of course, not invalidate his
Bulgarian studies; but even as he spoke Bulgarian with a Russian
accent, so is he looked upon as writing like certain Russians; and his
other literary work, such as that on the psychology of crowds, is held
to be of more value. At all events in 1916 when a number of Bulgarian
deputies made a joyous progress to the capitals of their allies, under
the leadership of the Vice-President of the Sobranje, Dr. Momchiloff,
renowned at the time as a Germanophil, they were welcomed with great
pomp at Buda-Pest and declared in ceremonial orations to be brothers
of the Turanian Magyars; but Momchiloff deprecated this idea. "We are
brothers," he said, "of the Russians, and see what we have done to
them!" It was also during the War that Dr. Georgov, Professor of
Philosophy and Rector of Sofia University, wrote a dissertation in a
Buda-Pest newspaper,[12] which demonstrated very clearly to the
Hungarians that the Bulgars are Slavs; the Professor points out that
the Turanians had so rapidly been absorbed that Prince Omortag
bestowed Slav names upon his sons, and this complete mingling of the
radically different peoples was assisted, says the Professor, by the
fact that those Bulgarian hordes in the days before they crossed the
Danube were already partly mixed with Slavs, since they had been
wandering for decades to the north of the Danube, around Bessarabia,
in which country the Slavs were members of the same Slovene race as
those whom they were afterwards to meet. So thoroughly were the
original Bulgars submerged in the Slavs that when their sons set out
from the district between Varna, Rustchuk and the Balkans, proceeding
west and south, they met with no resistance from the unorganized Slavs
of Mœsia and Thrace, owing to the circumstance that these latter
did not feel that the new arrivals were strangers. In fact, says the
Professor, there are in the present Bulgarian people far fewer and far
fainter traces of the original Bulgars than there are of the old
Thracians, as also of the Greeks and of the different people who in
the course of the great migrations probably left here and there some
stragglers. Sir Charles Eliot says of the Bulgars that "though not
originally Slavs they have been completely Slavized, and all the ties
arising from language, religion and politics connect them with the
Slavs and not with Turkey or even Hungary." Professor Cvijić, by
the way, who in 1920 received the Patron's Medal of the Royal
Geographical Society for his researches into Balkan ethnology, regards
the author of _Turkey in Europe_ as a greater authority in this field
than himself.... It is not easy, away from Montenegro and a few remote
valleys, to find communities on the Balkan mainland that are
altogether free from alien blood; Turks have come and gone, Crusaders
of all nationalities have passed this way, with their hangers-on, here
was the road from Europe to Asia, and here amid the ruin of empires
lay much that was worth gathering. No doubt the Serbs, whose land was
not so much a thoroughfare, have in their veins some Illyrian and
other, but on the whole much less non-Slav blood than the Bulgars;
still, when we consider some subsequent invasions of Bulgaria, we must
ascertain how far they spread. For example, the Kumani who arrived in
the thirteenth century were, according to Leon Cahun,[13] Turks of the
Kiptchak nation, speaking a pure Turkish dialect; they--that is to
say, the Gagaous who are supposed to be their descendants--are now
Christians, they speak modern Turkish and inhabit the shores of the
Black Sea and the region of Adrianople; they have kept much to
themselves and are recognizable by their dark faces, large teeth and
hirsute appearance. There are people who assert that all Bulgars have
a physical divergence from other Yugoslavs, but, except if they
happened to come across one of these Gagaous or some such person, it
appears more likely that they saw what they went out to see.
Naturally, if not very logically, those who regard the Bulgars in a
hostile fashion have often brandished the arguments of Messrs.
Tartaro-Bulgar and Paneff; if they will be so good as to accept what I
honestly believe is the truth with regard to this people, they may
have the pleasure of denouncing the Bulgar even more, seeing that his
Yugoslav blood gives him less excuse for being what he has been. We
shall have occasion, later on, to discuss his primitive as well as his
more refined vices, endeavouring to ascertain how far they are not
shared by his neighbours and whether he has any virtues peculiar to
himself.


STEPHEN NEMANIA

After this long excursion into troubled waters we will go back to the
Serbian States of Raška and Zeta. In the year 1168 the former of
these was under the rule of Stephen Nemania (1168-1196), who bore the
title of "Grand Župan," which means chief of a province. He was on
friendly terms with the "Ban," or governor, of Bosnia, and with his
assistance he added Zeta to his possessions. It was in his beneficial
reign that the Bogomile heresy was propagated in Serbia--later on to
spread through Bosnia and thence, under the name of Albigensian
heresy, to France. Nemania summoned an assembly to decide on a plan of
action; they resolved that this heresy should be exterminated by force
of arms, seeing that most of the population belonged to the Orthodox
religion. But Nemania was tolerant towards the Catholic Church, which
had a considerable following in the Serbian provinces of the Adriatic
coast, and this attitude became him well, for although he was the son
of Orthodox parents he was born in a western part of the country where
there was no Orthodox priest, so that he was baptized according to the
Catholic rite and only joined the Orthodox Church at a considerably
later date. A suggestive incident occurred in the year 1189, when
Frederick Barbarossa, on his way to Constantinople and Jerusalem, was
met at Niš by the Grand Župan, who presented him with corn,
wine, oxen and various other commodities, placed the Serbs under his
protection, and concluded with him and with the Bulgars a military
convention for the taking of Constantinople. When at last Nemania was
tired of fighting and administration he withdrew to the splendid
monastery of Studenica, which he had built, and afterwards to the
promontory of Mt. Athos, where his younger son, who called himself
Sava and was to become the great St. Sava, had from his seventeenth
year embraced the monastic life.


THE SLOVENES ARE SUBMERGED

Meanwhile the Slavs of Croatia and those farther to the north and
west, with whom was kept alive the old name of Slovene, had been at
grips with various neighbours. It has been said of the Slovenes that,
shepherds and peasants for the most part, they have practically no
national history, seeing that when the realm of Samo, who was himself
a Frank, came to an end, they were subjected to the Lombards, to the
Bavarians and finally to Charlemagne and his successors. Unlike the
Serbs and the Croats, they had no warlike aristocracy; in fact, the
only two Slovene magnates who displayed any national zeal were two
Counts of Celje (Cilli) of whom the first rose to be Ban of Croatia
and the second, Count Ulrich, the last of his race, was in 1486
assassinated by Hungarians in Belgrade, thus causing his domains to
fall to the Habsburgs.[14] But if the little, scattered Slovene people
had to bend before the storm, if they withdrew from their outposts in
the two Austrias, in northern Styria, in Tirol, in the plains of
Frioul and in Venetia, they settled down, thirteen centuries ago, in a
region which they still inhabit. This is bounded to the north
approximately by the line extending from Villach--Celovec
(Klagenfurt)--Spielfeld--Radgona (Radkersburg)--and the mouth of the
river Mur, although there are noteworthy fragments at each end: about
65,000 on the hills to the west of the Isonzo (of whom 40,000 have
been since 1866 under Italy), and about 120,000, partly Catholics and
partly Protestants, who live on the other bank of the Mur. Anyone who
wished to follow the fortunes of the Slovenes through the Middle Ages
would have chiefly to consult the chronicles of the Holy Roman Empire;
he would find them in their old home at Gorica, but with a German
Count placed over them, he would find them being gradually supplanted
by the Germans in such towns as Maribor (Marburg) and Radgona, being
thrust out to the villages and the countryside; nowhere except in the
province of Carniola would he find a homogeneous Slovene population.
It is an interesting fact[15] that in the fifteenth century theirs was
the "domestic language" of the Habsburgs, even as in our time the
Suabian-Viennese; but until the era of Napoleon they took practically
no part in the world's affairs, and the part which they were wont to
take was to fight other people's battles: for example, when the
Venetians, in the midst of all their hectic merriment, were making the
last stand, it was largely to the Schiavoni, that is Slovene,
regiments that they entrusted their defence. We are told that there
was no question of the loyalty and the fighting qualities of the
Schiavoni and of their sturdy fellow-Slavs, the Morlaks of Dalmatia.
It was not possible for the authorities to provide ships enough to
bring over sufficient resources to maintain all those who were eager
to fight.[16] In spite of all the centuries of political suppression
the little Slovene people, which to-day only numbers 1,300,000,
retained its identity with even more success than a certain frog in
Ljubljana, their capital; for that wonderful creature, though
preserving its shape in the middle of a black-and-white marble table
at the Museum, has allowed itself to become black-and-white marble. We
shall see how Napoleon awoke the Slovenes, how Metternich put them to
sleep again, how they roused themselves in 1848 and what a rôle they
have played in the most recent history.


THE FATE OF THE CROATS

The Croats were to be much more prominent in the Middle Ages. They did
not, it is true, always manage to hold their heads above water; but
they can now look back with more gratification than regret on the
interminable conflicts which they had to sustain against the
Hungarians on the one hand, the Venetians on the other. The Hungarian
monarch, anxious to have an outlet on the Adriatic, attempted to
cajole the Croats into electing him as their king, on the score of his
being the brother of the wife of a late Croatian ruler. He secured by
force what his pleadings had not gained him, and subsequently the link
between Croatia and Hungary was more than once broken and reunited
within the space of a few years; at last it was arranged that there
was to be a purely personal union under the vigorous King Kolomon, and
so it continued, with varying interference on the part of the
Hungarians, until the dynasty of Arpad became extinct in 1301. The
functionary who represented the central power in Croatia--there being
for part of this period a similar official for Slavonia, the adjoining
province--had the title of Ban. He was at the head of the Croatian
army, he pronounced sentences in the name of the king and had other
functions, so that the office came to be regarded with profound
respect by the Croats, and many of its holders tried to deserve this
sentiment.... Among the duties assumed by King Kolomon was that of
recovering from the Venetians those coastal towns and islands which
had fallen to them, owing to the chaos in Croatia. For more than two
hundred years--that is, until the middle of the fourteenth
century--this warfare between the Hungaro-Croatian kings and Venice
raged without interruption; apparently the Dalmatian towns and islands
were most unwilling to come under the sway of Venice. We read
everywhere of how they themselves put up a strenuous resistance. At
Zadar, the capital, where Pope Alexander III. had in the year 1177
been welcomed by the people with rejoicings and Croatian songs, a
chain was drawn across the harbour in 1202, for the people hoped in
this way to keep out the Venetians, who, with a number of Frenchmen,
were starting out on the famous Fourth Crusade--that enterprise which
ended, on the outward journey, underneath the walls of Constantinople.
The Venetians forced their way into Zadar, plundered and devastated
it; and in order to mollify the Pope, who was indignant at Crusaders
having behaved in this fashion against a Christian town, they
subscribed towards the building of the cathedral, but retained
possession of the place--this time for over a hundred and fifty years.
Yet the holding of Zadar did not imply that of other Dalmatian towns:
during this period when Venice clung to the chief place there were a
good many changes in the not-distant town of Šibenik, which was now
under the Hungarians, now under Paul Subič, Prince of Bribir, now
under the Ban Mladen II., now an autonomous town under Venice.


A GALLANT REPUBLIC

The most renowned, as it is the most beautiful, of Dalmatian towns,
Dubrovnik (Ragusa), was always more preoccupied with commerce and
letters than with warfare. It managed to maintain itself in glory for
a very long time, thanks to the astuteness of the citizens, who were
ever willing to give handsome tribute to a potential foe. On occasion
the Ragusans could be nobly firm, refusing to deliver a political
refugee to the Turks, and so forth. In such tempestuous times the
little State was forced to trim its sails; there was the gibe that
they were prepared to pay lip service to anyone, and that the letters
S.B. on the flag (for Sanctus Blasius, their patron saint) indicated
the seven flags, _sette bandiere_, which they were ready to fly. But
the Republic of Dubrovnik--a truly oligarchic republic, until the
great earthquake of 1667 made it necessary to raise a few other
families into the governing class--the republic can say, with truth,
that when darkness was over the other Yugoslavs it kept a lamp alight.
As yet the Serbian State was rising in prosperity and Dubrovnik made a
treaty of commerce with Stephen (1196-1224), who had succeeded his
father Nemania. During this reign St. Sava, the king's brother, came
back to Serbia and organized the national Church, founding also
numerous monasteries and churches, as well as schools. Of the
successors of Stephen we may mention Uroš, whose widow, a French
princess, Helen of Anjou, is venerated in Serbia for her good deeds
and has been canonized. King Milutine (1281-1321) made Serbia the most
united and the leading State in Eastern Europe; under Dušan, who
has been called the Serbian Charlemagne, success followed success, and
under his sceptre he gathered most of the Serbian people, as well as
many Greeks and Albanians. He had the idea--and it was not beyond his
strength--to group together all the Serbian provinces.


THE GLORIOUS DUŠAN

It is facile for people of the twentieth century, and particularly so
for non-Slavs, to say that this Serbian Empire of Dušan, Lord of
the Serbs and Bulgars and Greeks, whom the Venetian Senate addressed
as "Græcorum Imperator semper Augustus," resembled the earlier
Bulgarian Empire of Simeon, who called himself Emperor of the Bulgars
and the Vlachs, Despot of the Greeks, in that we would consider
neither of them to be an empire; and that therefore, in celebrating
their glories, with pointed reference to their Macedonian glories, the
Serbs and the Bulgars are living in a fool's paradise. No doubt a
great many persons dwelt in this Macedonia of Simeon and Dušan
without being aware of the fact, for those who called themselves
Bulgars or Serbs appear to have been chiefly the warriors, the nobles
and the priests; a large part of the people were--as they are
to-day--indifferent to such niceties. But there is latent in the Slav
mind a longing for the absolute, which, except it be in some way
corrected, inclines towards a moral anarchy, a social nihilism and
indifference as to the destinies of the State. Looking merely at the
consequence, it does not greatly seem to matter how this attitude is
brought about.... One must admit that these two realms occupied in
their world most prominent positions--positions to which they would
not have attained if Simeon and Dušan had not been altogether
exceptional men, for on their death there was not anybody great
enough to keep the great men of the State together. We have spoken of
Simeon's peaceful labours--we might cultivate more than we do the
literature of that age if it were less dedicated to religious topics,
which anyhow at that time gave little scope for originality--his
consummate ability as a soldier and statesman is revealed in the
existence of his empire; we find in the Code of Dušan, before such
a thing flourished in England, the institution of trial by jury, while
Hermann Wendel[17] has pointed out that the peasants were protected
from rapacious landowners much more effectively than in the Germany of
that age.... We need not try to establish whether the simple
Macedonian desired to be under Simeon or Dušan; but even if these
two monarchs had, each of them, as far as was then possible, complete
control of the country, one would scarcely urge that after all these
centuries this is any reason why Macedonia should fall to Bulgaria or
to Serbia. We shall have to see whether by subsequent merits or
activities either of them has acquired the right to absorb these
outlying Slavs who, be it noted, if in our day they are questioned as
to their nationality, will often reply--and even to an enthusiastic,
armed person from one of the interested States--the worried Macedonian
Slavs, of whom a quarter or maybe a third do really not know what they
are, will reply that they are members of the Orthodox Church.

Dušan perceived that an alliance with Venice would serve his ends;
he did not cease trying to persuade the Venetians that such an
arrangement was also in their interest. After having sent an army to
Croatia, in the hope of liberating that people from the Hungarians, he
conquered Albania, and in 1340 asked to be admitted as a citizen of
the Most Serene Republic. In 1345 he informed the Senate that it was
his intention to be crowned in _imperio Constantinopolitaneo_, and at
the same time suggested an alliance _pro acquisitione imperii
Constantinopolitani_. But Venice, while reiterating her protestations
of friendship, declined his offers; for she could not bring herself to
join her fortunes to those of an ally who might become a rival.


EVIL DAYS AND THE PEOPLE'S HERO

On the death of Dušan his dominions fell apart, so that the
conquering Turk, who now appeared, was only met with isolated
resistance. At a battle on the river Maritza in 1371 the Christians
were utterly routed and, among other chieftains, King Vukašin was
slain. His territories had included Prizren in the north, Skoplje,
where Dušan had been crowned, Ochrida and Prilep. It was Prilep,
amid the bare mountains, which passed into the hands of Marko, the
king's son, Marko Kraljević, and thereabouts are the remains of his
churches and monasteries. But for the Serbs and the Bulgars Marko is
associated with deeds of valour; he has become the protagonist of a
grand cycle of heroic songs, wherein his wondrous exploits are
recalled. Although he was, by force of circumstances, a Turkish
vassal, and, fighting under them, he perished in Roumania in 1394, so
that historically he may not have played a very helpful part, yet it
is to him that numerous victories over the Turk are ascribed. He is
said to have been engaged in combat against the three-headed Arab, to
have waged solitary and triumphant warfare against battalions of
Turks, to have passed swiftly on his faithful charger Šarac from
one end of the country to another, to have defended the Cross against
the Crescent, to have succoured the poor and the weak, to have
conversed with the long-haired fairies, the "samovilas," of the forest
lakes, who gave him their protection, and he is said to have assisted
girls to marry by abolishing the Turkish restrictions. They say that
he is still alive, and when he reappears, gloriously seated on
Šarac, then will the people be free, at last, and united.[18]
Through the long centuries of Turkish oppression he--who personifies
many of the traits in the national character, with Christian and with
pagan attributes--he, in these legends, many of which have a high
poetic value, was able to keep alive the hope of deliverance. From one
end of the Balkans to the other, from Varna to Triest, the popular
hero is Marko Kraljević. He is as much the personage of Bulgarian
as of Serbian folk-songs, and this is well, seeing that he was a
Serbian prince while many of his adoring subjects were Bulgars--the
noble Albanian chronicler, Musachi, for instance, calls his father Re
di Bulgaria. As Marko is dear to them in song the Bulgars have come to
think that he was a Bulgar; thereupon the Serbs point out that he was
the son of Vukašin, that Marko is an admittedly Serbian name, and
that Kralj (King) and Kraljević are titles so unknown in Bulgaria
that when the Sofia newspapers alluded to Louis Philippe, Ferdinand's
grandfather, they spoke of him--him of all people--as Tzar Louis
Philippe. Thereupon the Bulgars retort that, anyhow, Marko was cruel
and perfidious and a braggart and a drunkard and a fighter against
Christians, and a fighter remarkable for cowardice. But if we are
going to look at the private character of all the world's national
heroes, we shall be the losers more than they. Let Marko, who joins
the Serb and the Bulgar in song, find them engaged, when he comes
back, in drinking together and not in making him the subject of
antiquarian and acrimonious debate.


THE "GOOD CHRISTIANS" OF BOSNIA

While Serbia was listening to the Turkish cavalry, the Ban of Bosnia,
Tvertko, raised that province to its greatest eminence. Being a
collateral heir of the old house of Nemania, and having wide Serbian
lands under his rule, he had himself proclaimed king on the tomb of
St. Sava in 1377. He called his banat "the kingdom of Serbia," and
allied himself to Prince Lazar, the most powerful of the Serbian
rulers who were still independent. In Bosnia at this time the Bogomile
heresy, after winning the people of Herzegovina, that wild and
mournful province, attracted not only the peasants but the bans. Just
as Dušan and other Balkan princes had made of an autocephalous
Church the surest foundation of their States, so did the Bans of
Bosnia, beginning with Kulin at the close of the twelfth century, see
in the Bogomile movement a national Church that would render their
subjects more intractable to outside influences, to religious
suggestions emanating from Rome, and to political ambitions that came
from Hungary. The people, for their part, flocked to the ranks of the
"good Christians," as the sect was called, on account of the Bogomile
humility, the democratic organization of a Church that was in such
contrast with the formalism of Byzantine ceremonial, and also on
account of some pagan superstitions that were mingled with this
Christianity and made to these simple, recently converted Christians a
most potent appeal. It was in vain that the Popes preached a crusade
against the Bogomiles, in vain that the Kings of Hungary descended on
their heretical vassals; for the ban, in one way or another, would
divert that wrath--sometimes, if no other choice presented itself, he
became the temporary instrument of this wrath while standing at the
people's back. From all the world, so say contemporary records, there
was a constant stream of heretics to Bosnia, where now the Bogomiles
were found in the most exalted positions. Ceaselessly the Popes
persecuted them, and when at last in Sigismund of Hungary an ardent
extirpator visited the land there came about a terrible result, which
has made Bosnia so different from other Serbian territories.


KOSSOVO

Tvertko did his utmost to make of Bosnia the kernel of another great
Slav State. The death of Lewis of Hungary freed him from his most
redoubtable adversary; Dalmatia, Croatia and other lands were joining
him--but then in 1389 came Kossovo, the fatal field of blackbirds,
where a disloyal coalition of Serbian, Croatian, Albanian and
Bulgarian chieftains went down in irretrievable disaster. Milos
Obilić, who is now one of Serbia's popular heroes, had been
suspected of lukewarmness; he answered his accusers by gaining access
to the Sultan's camp and slaying the Sultan. Not only did the Turks
put him to death, but they decapitated their prisoner, Prince Lazar,
and all the other chiefs.

The Slavs along the Adriatic were now also on the eve of dire
misfortune: protracted wars of succession, in consequence of the death
in 1382 of Lewis of Hungary, had ravaged that country and Croatia, so
that in their enfeebled condition they could give no assistance to the
towns and islands of Dalmatia which for so long had been struggling to
elude the grip of Venice. But even so--and with many places handing
themselves over voluntarily, in disgust at the almost incredible
treason of their elected monarch, Ladislas of Naples, who, after long
bargaining, sold his rights to Venice for a hundred thousand ducats,
and with many places, in dread of the Turks, placing themselves under
the protection of Venice--even so the Venetians had a great deal of
trouble in occupying Dalmatia, and a hundred years elapsed before they
had the whole of it. As for the two ports, Triest and Rieka (Fiume),
they had passed through various episcopal or aristocratic hands.
Triest had been in a position to set her face against falling to
Venice, of whom she had had, from the tenth to the twelfth centuries,
an adequate experience. Both Triest and Rieka were now to pass into
the power of the Habsburgs.


GATHERING DARKNESS

For a few years after Kossovo the Serbs resisted; but their efforts,
now at Belgrade, which was made the capital and fortified by Stephen
the chivalrous son of Prince Lazar, now at Smederevo on the Danube,
were spasmodic. Bands of Turks and also of Magyars were terrorizing
the country; and the sagacious old despot George Branković was the
last to offer opposition to the Turk at Smederevo. Meanwhile in
Bosnia, the Bogomiles, driven to despair by persecution, had been
calling to the Turk. Constantinople fell in 1453, Serbia laid down her
arms in 1459, while in 1463 Muhammed II. appeared before Jajce,
Bosnia's capital, where one can still see the skeleton of Stephen
Tomažević, the last king, who was executed by the Sultan's
order. And now in this land of heresy, which had become so hostile to
the established Churches, hundreds of those who professed the Bogomile
faith went over eagerly to Islam; they hoped that in this way they
would triumph at the expense of their late persecutors. Those who had
worldly possessions were the first to embrace Islam, in order to
safeguard them. Those who had neither wealth nor much accumulated
hatred remained Christians. One would expect that people who had
adopted a religion under these impulses would be even more
uncompromising than the usual convert, and indeed, as a general rule,
the ex-Christian begs and aghas displayed until recent times not only
a more than Turkish observance of the outward forms of Islam but a
tyranny over the wretched raias, their slaves, that was much more than
Turkish.

Fortune had turned her back upon the Southern Slavs. In the north the
Slovenes were imprisoned in the Holy Roman Empire, while the
Croats--save for the time when they were under Tvertko--had a
succession of alien rulers, such as the aforementioned Ladislas, whom
they naturally disliked.

After Kossovo some of the Serbian nobles had fled to Hungary, to
Bosnia and to Montenegro. It was among the almost inaccessible, bleak
rocks of Montenegro that a few thousand Serbs managed to retain their
liberty. Various Serbian tribes or clans thus found a refuge, and
owing to their isolation from each other they preserved their
differences. They have, in fact, preserved them, as well as the tribal
organization, down to the present day. And then there was Dubrovnik,
the stalwart little republic. Now that she stood alone she needed all
her acumen. Yet if she paid necessary tribute to the powerful, she
would not give up helping the fallen. From this Catholic town in 1390,
the following message was sent to the Serbian Prince Vuk Branković:
"If--and God forbid that it should be so--Gospodin Vuk should not
succeed in saving Serbia, and should be driven thence either by the
Magyars or the Turks or anyone else, we will receive the Gospodin Vuk
and the Gospodja Mara his wife, together with their children and their
treasure, in all good faith in our city; and if Gospodin Vuk desire
to build a church of his own faith here for his use, he shall be at
liberty to do so."[19]

Darkness lay over the world of the Southern Slav--under the Turk there
was no history. Generation followed generation, but the day of Kossovo
does not seem to the Serbs as though it were a distant day. Do not we
who go about our business in the brilliance of the morning sometimes
linger to recall the frightful setting of the sun? And every year the
Serbian people sing the Mass for the repose of them who died at
Kossovo.... When, after more than five hundred years, the Serbian
soldiers in the Balkan War came back to this historic plain one saw
them halting, without being ordered to do so, crossing themselves and
presenting arms.

    FOOTNOTES:

    [Footnote 4: From the word _sloviti_, to speak--meaning those
    who can speak to and comprehend one another.]

    [Footnote 5: Premrou quotes from the account of this
    ambassador's journey in the year 965, which was published at
    Petrograd in 1898.]

    [Footnote 6: Cf. _Serbia_, by L. F. Waring. London, 1917.]

    [Footnote 7: The sources of the ancient history of Croatia
    have been collected by F. Rački in his _Documenta historiæ
    Croaticæ periodum antiquam illustrantia_, Zagreb, 1877. Cf.
    also his well-known and excellent essays in _Rad. jugoslav.
    Akad._; the _Poviest Hrvata de Vjekoslav Klaič_, Zagreb,
    1899-1911, and a short but very good account by F. Sišić in
    _Pregled povijesti hrv. naroda_, Zagreb, 1916. I am indebted
    for these references to Dr. Yovan Radonić, who is regarded as
    among the first of Croat historians.]

    [Footnote 8: This book, dating from 1395, is in the town
    library of Reims.]

    [Footnote 9: "The Bulgarians, in their historical,
    ethnographical and political frontiers." Text in four
    languages. Berlin, 1917.]

    [Footnote 10: _La Macedoine_, by Simeon Radeff. Sofia, 1918.]

    [Footnote 11: _Obzor Chronografov_, published by Professor
    Popov in 1863.]

    [Footnote 12: _Pester Lloyd_, June 21, 1917.]

    [Footnote 13: _Introduction à l'Histoire de l'Asie._ Paris,
    1896.]

    [Footnote 14: In a monograph on the 600th anniversary of the
    Church of St. Mary at Celje (Celje, 1910) there is reproduced
    a contemporary narrative of the funeral of Count Ulrich.
    After describing how the widow, the noble lady Catharine, had
    with dire wailing gone round the altar and offered sacrifice,
    being followed by all the congregation, it proceeds: "Da diss
    geschehen gieng wieder herfür ein geharnischter Mann, der
    Namb zu sich Schilt, Helmb, Wappen, legte sich auf die Erden,
    vnd striche gar lauth, ganz erbärmlich vnd gar Cläglich mit
    heller stimbe drei mahl nacheinander Graffen zu Cilli, vnd
    Nimmehr zerreiss die Panier, Zerbrach die Wappen da war
    Allererst ein Clagen, dass es nicht einen Menschen, sondern
    ein harten stain hete Erbarmen Mögen."]

    [Footnote 15: Cf. A lecture delivered by Sir Arthur Evans
    before the Royal Geographical Society, January 10, 1916.]

    [Footnote 16: Cf. _La Fine della Serenissima_, by Ricciotti
    Bratti. Milan, 1919.]

    [Footnote 17: _Südosteuropäische Fragen_, by Hermann Wendel.
    Berlin, 1918.]

    [Footnote 18: His equipment, as M. Charles Loiseau (in _Le
    Balkan Slave et la Crise Autrichienne_, Paris, 1898) remarks
    very truly, "n'est pas banal." One of his historians relates
    that he was furnished with a sword, a lance, javelins and
    arrows trimmed with falcons' feathers, sometimes also with a
    sabre and a small axe. He was garbed in a cloak of wolf's
    skin, using the same skin for his cap, round which was wound
    a dark piece of cloth. On his saddle was a scarf of silk. The
    reins of his horse were gilded, and he carried in his right
    hand a javelin of iron, gold and silver, weighing 150 lb.
    (?), and this he balanced on the left side with a large skin
    of wine. On his back was a magnificent cloak, and behind him
    there was a folded tent.]

    [Footnote 19: _Monumenta Serbica_, edited by F. Miklosić.]




II

FIGHTING THE DARKNESS

THE VENETIANS IN DALMATIA--METHODS OF THE TURK--THE SLAVS WHO
MIGRATED--THE CONSOLATION OF THOSE WHO REMAINED--GOOD LIVING IN
HUNGARY--THE PROTESTANT INFLUENCE--DUBROVNIK, REFUGE OF THE ARTS--HOW
SHE SMOOTHED HER WAY--HER COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE--HER NORTHERN KINSMEN
AND THE MILITARY FRONTIERS--THE OPPRESSIVE OVERLORDS OF THE
YUGOSLAVS--THE GREAT MIGRATION UNDER THE PATRIARCH--ACTIVITIES OF THE
SOUTHERN SLAVS UNDER THE HABSBURGS--THE POSITION OF THEIR
CHURCH--SERBS ASSIST THE BULGARIAN RENASCENCE--THE GERMAN COLONISTS IN
THE BANAT--THE SOUTHERN SLAV COLONISTS AND THEIR RELIGION--BUNJEVCI,
ŠOKCI AND KRAŠOVANI.


THE VENETIANS IN DALMATIA

One might argue that the Slav of Dalmatia had no gratitude, because
when Serbia and Bosnia were utterly under the Turk, when the Slovenes
of Carniola, Carinthia and Southern Styria suffered between 1463 and
1528 no less than ten Turkish invasions, when in the middle of that
fifteenth century the crescent floated over all Croatia and only the
fortified towns of the seacoast and the islands remained in the
Christian hands of Venice, whom a fair number of these towns and
islands had called in to protect them, surely one might argue that it
was not seemly if the local population, Croats and Serbs, detested the
Venetians. And on hearing that not long ago an orator in the Italian
Parliament exclaimed, "I cani croati!"--a description that was greeted
with a whirlwind of applause--you possibly might argue that the
Speaker should have reprimanded him because ingratitude is not a
quality associated with dogs.

As we gaze at the splendid structures, the palaces, the forts, the
magnificent cathedral of Šibenik that was begun in 1443, the loggia
of Trogir and Hvar, the loggia of Zadar--"a perfect example," we are
told, "of a public court of justice of the Venetian period"--the
towers on the old town-walls of Korčula, as we gaze at all those
elegant and useful and robust and picturesque buildings which bear the
sign of the Lion of St. Mark, do not the complaints of the disgruntled
population of that period tax our patience?

We may waive the fact that the Šibenik cathedral was left
unfinished for centuries, being only completed by public subscription
under the Austrians; we may overlook the fact that the Lion of St.
Mark was sometimes placed on a building not erected by the Venetians.
This we can see at the Frankopan Castle on Krk, and elsewhere. But it
would be unjust if we held Venice up to blame on account of some
exuberant citizens. There are many other buildings in Dalmatia which
undoubtedly were built by the Venetians: palaces and forts and walls
and loggia which are perfect examples of a Venetian court of justice.

Some one may ask why the Venetians built no churches that were half as
beautiful as those--say, St. Grisógono at Zadar, the cathedrals of
Zadar and Trogir, and so forth--which were constructed under the
Croatian kings. Well, the possession of such churches would have been
a source of pride to the Dalmatians (and have kept awake the national
spirit more than did the forts and loggia), and the Venetians wanted
to preserve the people from the sin of pride. There was also a feeling
that the Dalmatian forests were a source of pride to the people. So
the Venetians removed them. They were able to make use of the wood for
their numerous vessels, for the foundations of their palaces, and as
an article of export to Egypt and Syria.[20]

Then some one else may ask about the schools. One must confess that
the Venetians built no schools. But, nay dear sir, contemplate the
curious carving round the windows of that palace, and then there is
that perfect example of a Venetian court of justice. Was it not
unreasonable for some of the Dalmatians to be discontented it they and
their countrymen were allowed no schools, seeing that one did not need
a school in order to be eligible for the army or commercial navy,
which were the professions open to the natives of Dalmatia? With
regard to those natives who really wanted to have a University
diploma--well, the University of Padua was prepared to grant one
without an examination; the "overseas subjects" could become doctors
of medicine or of law on the simple production of a certificate from
two doctors or two lawyers of their country, stating that the
candidate was a capable person. Thereupon he was allowed to
practise--in Dalmatia. And Venice herself was disposed to grant
privileges, such as an exemption from all taxes, to those noblemen and
burgesses and highly placed clergy who were well disposed to her. But
as for schools, she could not ignore an anonymous work of the end of
the sixteenth century, which was attributed to Fra Paolo Sarpi, the
learned councillor of the Republic; he warned them in this book that
"if you wish the Dalmatians to remain faithful to you, then keep them
in ignorance," and again: "In proportion as Dalmatia is poor and a
wilderness, so will her neighbours be less anxious to seize her."

With regard to roads--how could Venice be expected to build roads?
They might have been of service to the population of the interior, but
they would have caused a certain number of those people to devote
themselves to trade, and thus would have prevented them from guarding
the land against the Turk, which was the unquestioned duty of a man
who lived in the interior.

When the Venetians retired from Dalmatia in 1797, after holding it for
three to four hundred years, the country as a country was not
flourishing. The total of exports and imports was such as would now
satisfy a single large trader. But, of course, the land possessed
those buildings with the Lion of St. Mark upon them--which were
possibly put up with the idea of enhancing the prestige of the
Republic--and it possessed the loggia.

In 1797 when the Austrians arrived they found in the prisons of Zadar
that, out of two hundred convicts, fifty were beyond human punishment,
and of these one had been dead for five years. The system was that the
Government allotted to the prisoners for their subsistence a sum that
was so inadequate that they were obliged to borrow from the warders;
and when the prisoner had served his sentence and was unable to repay
the warder, this functionary kept him under lock and key. There in the
same dungeon lay the untried and the convicts and the insane, for whom
there was no separate habitation. It was impossible, said those who
set them free, to describe the horrors of filth, the bare ground not
being even covered with straw, the windows being permanently closed
with blocks of wood, so that the poor inmates could never get a
glimpse of the loggia, that perfect example of a Venetian court of
justice. The hospital at Split was a damp cellar, and outside it was a
ditch of stinking water. The foundling home, which was called _Pietà_,
was a room so horrible that, out of six hundred and three new-born
children who had been there in ten years, _not one had gone out
alive_.

But were not these abuses general at that epoch? And can we demand
that the Venetians of that time shall answer the reproaches which it
pleases us to make? And what answer did they give to the reproaches of
their subjects, illustrious Dalmatians, such as Tommaseo and Pietro
Alessandro Paravia, who, although belonging to the Italophil party,
passed the sternest judgment on the authorities? What excuse could
there be in 1797, seeing that, the wars having concluded at the
beginning of the eighteenth century, Venice was free to undertake a
humanitarian and civilizing work? Venice was by no means in a
disarming state of decrepitude. On her own lands she had brought her
stock-raising, her agriculture and her industries to such a pitch of
development that she had the experience, as well as the initiative and
the means, to do something for the Dalmatians who, and especially in
the interior, knew no other trade than that of arms. Terrible was the
desolation of those days; over large areas there was no
drinking-water; the land was merely used to pasture the herds of
almost wild cattle; instead of the superb forests were hundreds of
miles of naked rock; and nowhere had the Venetian families, to whom
the Government had given great holdings, come to settle down among
their peasants. Nothing at all had been done in the way of
canalization or of drainage, so that the land was devastated with
malarial fever. In 1797 only 256,000 inhabitants remained; a hundred
years later the number had doubled. It had much more than doubled if
we take into account those who emigrated from a land which could no
longer support the population of the early Middle Ages.

In 1797 the Venetian democrats begged Napoleon not to take Dalmatia
from them, since the harbours and the population were indispensable to
them. They made no allusion to the sentiments of affection which
united these provinces to the Mother Country.

But are we unfair to the Venetians? Are we omitting the salient fact
that, even if they were not model administrators, they at all events
kept out the Turk, who would possibly have been more nefarious than
themselves?... When troops were needed to fight the Turk these were
for the most part provided, in the several long campaigns, by the
Croats and Serbs of Dalmatia.

And what has been the fruit of all this? Let us take an Italian
writer's observations on the people of the interior, the Morlaks.[21]
In his book _I Morlacchi_ (Rome, 1890), Signor Francesco Majnoni
D'Intignano says that they are "endowed with courage and, like all
courageous people, with frankness. They say what they think and their
sentiments are openly displayed. Thus, for example, they do not
attempt to conceal their antipathy against the Italians. They are no
longer mindful of the benefits which they received in the past nor of
the fact that the Venetians freed them from the Turkish yoke; and this
is so not only because of the lapse of years, but because under the
Venetian rule they did not feel themselves independent; they saw in
the Italian merely that astuteness which knows how to profit from
other people's toil, and which has no thought of making any payment.
In the Italian they have no faith, and so their 'Lazmansko Viro'
(Italian fidelity) is equivalent to the Romans' expression 'Greek
fidelity.' But all this does not prevent them, when they have occasion
to offer hospitality to an Italian, from offering it with every
courtesy."

It is hardly worth while inquiring whether the Venetians or the Turks
wrought more evil against their Yugoslav subjects. But though the
modern Italian claim to Dalmatia and the islands may appear to us--in
so far as it is based on historical grounds--to have small weight,
nevertheless we must not allow it to make us insensible to the
Venetian's good qualities. It may not nowadays be reckoned as
meritorious that, after her own interests had been safeguarded, she
did not interfere with the privileges of the small class of nobles,
the "magnifica communità nobile," but at any rate it could be said of
her that she left intact the local privileges. One must also bear in
mind that the majority of her subjects in those parts had, through one
cause or another, a prejudice against innovations which could only be
broken down very gradually.

Nor were the Turks altogether vicious. Those who came first into the
Yugoslav lands were under a severe discipline, and, preserving the
austere habits of a warlike race, they were not guilty--generally
speaking--of excesses. As the first comers were not very numerous,
they contented themselves with occupying the strategic points; and as
the Yugoslavs were accustomed to the life of a State not being very
prolonged, they were cheered by the thought that their subjugation to
the Turk would fairly soon come to an end.


METHODS OF THE TURK

After the Turk had made himself master of Bosnia and Herzegovina he
enrolled among his janissaries 30,000 of the young men, and in other
parts of Yugoslavia showed himself inclined at first to permit the
people to follow their own traditions, their religion,[22] their
language and their customs, so long as he was maintained in luxury and
so long as a sufficient supply of young men was forthcoming. The
abominable acts of cruelty, by which he is now remembered in the
Balkans, appear to have started at a later period, when he had himself
degenerated, when his lawless soldiery provoked the people, when the
people rose and he suppressed them in a manner that would make them
hesitate to rise again. But from the first he saw to it that there
should be recruits; many a young Slav taken early from his home was
transformed at Constantinople into a redoubtable janissary who fought
against Europeans; these troops, who were not allowed to marry, gave
an absolute obedience. They were perhaps the finest infantry in the
world--for two hundred years they formed the strongest prop of the
Turkish Empire. Paulus Jovius, the historian, says that in 1531 nearly
the whole corps of janissaries spoke Slav. Other young men were
received into the Government offices--the Porte, until the end of the
seventeenth century, used the Serbian language for its international
transactions; its treaties with the Holy Roman Empire, for example,
were all made out in Serbian and Greek. Finally there were not wanting
Southern Slavs who rose to high distinction in the Sultan's service,
such as Mehemet Sokolović, who, after being thrice pasha of Bosnia,
was elevated to the post of grand vizier; Achmet Pasha Herzegović
(son of the last chief of Herzegovina), whose conversion was followed
by an appointment as Bey of Anatolia; he became brother-in-law of
Sultan Bajazet II. and likewise grand vizier. There was Sinan Pasha, a
Bosnian, who constructed in Čajnica, his native place, the handsome
mosque that still exists, and there was the renowned Osman
Pasvantoölu Pasha, also of Bosnian origin, who appeared in 1794
outside the historic fortress called Baba Vida (Grandmother Vida), of
the dusty, old rambling town of Vidin on the Danube. Having won his
way into the fortress he was elected governor, and a year later he
became Pasha. His independence was remarkable even at a period when
Mahmud Bushatli Pasha flourished at Scutari and Ali Pasha at Jannina,
so that Lamartine described Turkey in Europe as "une confédération
d'anarchies." Pasvantoölu coined his own money, and, amongst other
exploits, placed on the outside of a mosque his own monogram instead
of the Caliph's emblem. Therefore the outraged Sultan sent against him
three armies in succession, and each of them went back from Vidin
vanquished. The pasha was a brave and energetic man of iron will, a
great soldier and an expert architect. He built famous places of
worship, whose gilded arabesques, whose fountains in the silent courts
may bring us to meditate on one who died in 1807, three years after
the first insurrection of his fellow-Yugoslav, Kara George. In
Pasvantoölu's great library at Vidin there are one hundred and twelve
books on scientific and literary matters. The Pasha was venerated and
was regarded almost with dread for having managed to assemble so many
volumes dealing with other than spiritual affairs.


THE SLAVS WHO MIGRATED

But, apart from the Bogomiles, the number of those who of their own
free will went over to the Turks was scanty. Far more numerous were
those who abandoned their country and crossed the Danube to Hungary,
to Transylvania, to Wallachia, to Bessarabia, thus returning with
weary hearts to some of the places which, a thousand years before, had
seen their shaggy ancestors come trooping westward. What they heard in
the Banat, the part of southern Hungary they came to first, must have
induced a large proportion of them to remain, for they were told by
those who had migrated after Kossovo, in the days of old George
Branković and of Stephen the son of Dušan, that this was a good
land and that the masters of it, the Hungarians, were much more easy
to live under than the Turks. Not that it was necessary to live under
them, because one could settle in the lands or in the towns which had
been given by some arrangement to Stephen and to George Branković.
These were lands so wide that all the Slav wanderers could make a home
on them; they extended to the river Maroš and even beyond it. If
they settled in one of those districts it would be under one of their
own leaders and judges, not those of the Hungarians. There did not
seem to be many Hungarians, and perhaps that was why they wanted other
people in the country, especially now that the Turk was not far off.
If anyone decided to live under the Hungarians, that also was much
better than under the Turks; in this country of fine horses you were
not prevented from going on horseback. Then it was much easier to
speak to the Hungarians, because a great many words in their language,
particularly the words which had to do with agriculture, seemed to be
Slav. So alluring, in fact, was the state of things in the Banat, as
these people painted it, that many of the immigrants, in their relief
and happiness, wanted to hear no more. They scarcely listened while
they were being told about the Slav settlers, in pretty large numbers,
who had been there longer still, people who said that they had lived
there always, even before the building of the Slav monasteries, and
some of these were three or four hundred years old, as could be proved
by rescripts of the Popes. Likewise those who had always lived there
reported that some of their own race had been great men--one had been
the Palatine of Hungary in the days when King Stephen II. was a child,
another was the Palatine Belouch, brother to Queen Helen; and were not
the monasteries there to remind one of the leaders, the voivodas, who
liked to raise such temples so that prayers could be said for the
repose of their souls?

It was known that a people which professed the same religion as
themselves--"a people of shepherds," as King Andrew II. called them in
a decree dated 1222, the time of their first appearance in Hungary--it
was known that these Roumanians from Wallachia were just advancing
from Caras-Severin, the most easterly of the three counties of the
Banat, into Temes, which is the central one. But even if they came
farther west it did not seem to matter; one had a kindly feeling for
them, since there was a good deal of Slav in their language, and if
they were averse from building monasteries, that was their own affair.
They had, it was interesting to learn, invited a Serb, the same man
who had erected Krushedol monastery in Syrmia, to build one at least
as imposing for them at a place called Argesu, to the north of
Bucharest.

Thus one cannot be surprised that hundreds and thousands of Serbs and
Bulgars quitted their native lands--they were not known to the Turks
as Serbs and Bulgars, but merely as raia of the province of
Rumili--and crossed the Danube, the Serbs going chiefly to their own
countryfolk in Banat and the lands to the west of it, while the
Bulgars went partly to the Banat, where their descendants have won
fame as market-gardeners, but chiefly to Roumania, settling in
villages round Bucharest.


THE CONSOLATION OF THOSE WHO REMAINED

Those who preferred to take arms against the Turk had the choice
either of leaving their country and entering the service of one which
was at war with Turkey or else abiding in their own land, gathering in
bodies of fifty to a hundred men, massacring as many Turks as
possible, protecting and avenging their own people, sometimes being
killed themselves, otherwise returning to the mountains every spring.
The "heiduks," as they were called, had the people's unbounded
devotion. Their achievements, perhaps a little touched with romance,
were celebrated in the people's songs, and as it may be of interest to
know what kind of song this people made in the period of uttermost
depression, I give overleaf a couple that are concerned with heiduks;
they are translations from a book of mine, _The Shade of the Balkans_,
which is out of print.


              I.

    Go now and tell them,
    Tell your companions
    That, O Heiduk,
    I have cut off your hands.

    Cut away, cut away,
    For I did curse them
    When, O Buljuk Pasha,
    They trembled on the gun.

    Go now and tell them,
    Tell your companions
    That, O heiduk,
    I have pricked out your eyes.

    Prick away, prick away,
    For I did curse them
    When, O Buljuk Pasha,
    They failed along the gun.

    Go now and tell them,
    Tell your companions
    That, O heiduk,
    I have hacked off your head.

    Hack away, hack away,
    For I did curse it
    When, O Buljuk Pasha,
    It compassed not your end.


              II.

    O Mechmed,[23] my beloved son,
    Have you come wounded back to me?
    Where is your pipe and your heiduk garb?
      --Ask me not, ask me not.
      Ask me rather where are my comrades.
      With six hundred I went to the mountains--
      Six of them live and brought me hither,
      Brought me though themselves were wounded.
      A little time and I must die,--
      Call everyone of those I love,
      For I would take my leave of them.

    When all were come young Mechmed said:
      Mother, how long will you mourn for me?
        --Till I step down to you in darkness.
      Father, how long will you mourn for me?
        --Till the raven's wing is white
        And I see grapes on the willow-tree.
      Sisters, how long will you mourn for me?
        --Till we have babes to sing asleep.
      How long will you mourn, my beloved?
        --Till I go down among the flowers
        And bring a nosegay back for him.



The Turk had thrown aside any toleration he started with. The
Patriarchate of Peć, which they had for a time left intact, was now
abolished and was not again permitted until 1557, when its
re-establishment was due to the efforts of Mehemet Sokolović, the
grand vizier from Bosnia, who raised to the Patriarchate his brother
the monk Macarius. Every school in Serbia and Bulgaria was closed, so
that no teaching could be given anywhere save in the monasteries; it
is said to be a fact--I have it from Dr. Zmejanović, lately Bishop
of Veršac--that when Kara George, the beloved and illiterate
heiduk, made his first insurrection, there were, in addition to the
monks, precisely eight individuals in Serbia--their names are
recorded--who could read and write. Thus the absence of
printing-presses was not greatly felt: in Bulgaria there was now no
press at all, in Serbia a few prayer-books were roughly printed in the
monasteries; but in the sixteenth century the monks, for the copying
of these books, had reverted to the use of pen and ink.

There had been in the bygone days, in the empires of Simeon and
Dušan, for example, a privileged class, commonly called an
aristocracy, which as elsewhere had arisen from the people having been
obliged to submit themselves to military discipline.... And it was in
those dreary days when all the raia felt themselves as brothers[24]
that the Serb and Bulgar planted that democracy which flourishes among
them now. They saw what dangers threatened in the towns. Vuk
Karajič, the reformer of the Serbian language, tells of certain
merchants there who, by assuming Turkish apparel and customs, came to
be no longer counted as Serbs. And more numerous by far were the
townsfolk, nobles and merchants and others, who went to live among the
countryfolk and intermarried with them, and produced a people which is
better described not as a democracy, but as an aristocracy.


GOOD LIVING IN HUNGARY

And always we hear that those in the Banat and those in the still more
fertile province of Bačka, to the west of it, or those who had gone
even farther west, into the wine-growing hills of Baranja, had no
reason to regret their enterprise. King Matthew Corvinus of Hungary
writes to the Pope on the 12th of January 1483, informing him that
200,000 Serbs have come into the Banat and Bačka since 1479. He
adds that he is favourably disposed towards them, as they are a
fighting race of the first order, so that he can trust them to defend
those provinces against the Turk.... Not only, therefore, did he
bestow upon them exceptional privileges, but in 1471 he appointed Vuk,
the grandson of George Branković, to be Serbian despot of southern
Hungary. This newly organized dominion on the left bank of the Danube
and the Save was much more important than those of Transylvania or of
Szekeliek, which were held by Hungarian magnates and which, in the
event of war, had to furnish, each of them, four hundred horsemen,
whereas the Serbian despot undertook to furnish a thousand.

The earliest Serbian settlement in Baranja appears to have consisted
of natives of the Morava valley who came in 1508 to a district near
Ciklos. The king made over the castle of Ciklos to their leader,
Stephen Stiljanović, called the Just, and when the Turks broke into
Baranja they murdered him. History[25] relates that some years after
this on the 14th of August the pasha, a man of Serbian origin,
commanded that the corpse be exhumed; whereupon a ring on the dead
man's finger proved that he was related to the pasha. According to the
Turkish rules of that period it was illegal to celebrate the Mass
except at night, and in the open air. Now every year on the night of
the 14th of August a Mass is sung, with the congregation holding
torches and candles, out on the side of a hill. Afterwards they dance,
and so forth.

However, it was the Banat to which the Serbs chiefly rallied, and
after the fall of the fortress of Belgrade in 1521 they came in such
multitudes that large portions of it had an exclusively Serbian
character. And they were given the sole charge of defending it, while
the Hungarians retired to the north. But Hungary herself went down at
the terrific battle of Mohács--10,000 Serbs under their voivoda, Paul,
fought in the Hungarian ranks--and after the fall of Buda-Pest the
political organization of the Serbs, with a despot as their ruler,
came to an end, being replaced by a religious organization, at the
head of which was the restored Patriarchate of Peć. The diocese
which the Patriarchs from their not very accessible monastery were
supposed to administrate included all the Serbs between Monastir and
Buda-Pest, and from the Adriatic to the Struma River. It was at this
time that in the other Yugoslav lands, to the west and north, there
came a breath of wind from the Reformation.


THE PROTESTANT INFLUENCE

When the German reformers tried, by way of the Yugoslavs, to reach
Rome, they found a printing-press at Urach, from which, between 1561
and 1564, a number of books in Glagolitic characters (and in Cyrillic,
a special form thereof) were issued. The most cultivated of the
Glagolitic clergy in Istria and the Croatian littoral, such as Antony
Dalmatin, Primus Trubar the Slovene and George Jurišić, were
enthusiastic in seconding the press and in seeking, as writers, to
disseminate Protestantism in the Slav world. One of their most notable
fellow-workers was Matthew Vlacić (Mathias Flacius Illyricus),
professor at the Universities of Wittenberg, Jena, Strassbourg and
Antwerp, a veritable encyclopædist of the Reformation, and, with
Luther and Melanchthon, one of its leaders. A very distinguished man,
who had already, about 1550, joined the Protestant Church, was Peter
Paul Vergerius; before 1550 he had twice been Papal Nuncio in Germany,
a bishop in Croatia and afterwards in Istria. The rank and file of the
Glagolitic clergy received these books with joy, for the Roman
hierarchy, which had small liking for this truly national Church,
would have been glad to see it perish in ignorance, with no books and
no culture. By the way, the lower clergy remained what they had
been--a national clergy. They availed themselves of these Glagolitic
books from the Protestant press, but for that reason were not going to
become Protestants. Theological subtleties were repugnant to them, and
before and after the Council of Trent they married and lived a family
life.


DUBROVNIK, REFUGE OF THE ARTS

The intellectual life of the Yugoslavs would, but for Dubrovnik, have
died out altogether. And even at Dubrovnik, of which the Southern Slav
thinks always with pride and gratitude, there was a movement to turn
away from the Slav world. This was certainly one of the periods, which
reappear not seldom in the story of Dubrovnik, when it seemed that
miracles of wisdom would be wanted for the steering of the ship of
State. Venice and the Turkish Empire were as two tremendous waves that
rose on either side. By a very clever show of yielding, the little
Republic had for a time disarmed the Turks, and, later on, when the
Venetians declared that all the commercial treaties existing between
the Dalmatian towns and Turkey were void, it was necessary for
Dubrovnik also to accommodate herself to this enactment and to
restrict her trade to Spain and the African coast. It would under
these circumstances be most imprudent, so urged some of the citizens
of Dubrovnik, if they were officiously to advertise their relationship
to the hapless Slavs, who were enslaved to the Republic's mighty
neighbours. And in 1472 the Senate had directed that within its walls
no speeches should henceforth be made in Slav. But as the Senate
consisted of forty-five nobles, and these were obliged to be over
forty years of age, one may say that they did not represent what was
most virile in the State; at all events, this isolated tribute to
expediency may for a time have been observed in that assemblage, in
the world of letters it was disregarded. And this is the more
wonderful when we remember that Dubrovnik had from Italy a language
that was already formed, she had Italian models and printers and even
their literary taste. But Šiško Menčetic and Džore Držić--both of them
nobles, by the way--started at once to write verses in Slav; not very
sublime verses, as they were principally love-songs of the school that
imitated Petrarch, but it is pleasing to recall that they were written
in spite of the thunders of Elias Crijević, a contemporary renegade.
Under the name of Elias di Cerva this gentleman travelled to Rome,
where he made himself a disciple of Pomponius Lætus and once more
modified his good Slav name into Ælius Lampridius Cerva, and received
at the Quirinal Academy the crown of Latin poetry. Having thus
qualified himself to be a schoolmaster, he went back to Dubrovnik and
settled down to that profession. He was likewise very active as a
publicist on the "barbaric" Slav language, which, as he was never
tired of screaming, was a menace both to Latin and Italian. One is apt
to call those persons reasonable, among other things, whose opinions
coincide with one's own; but is there anybody willing to assert that
because the Slav culture of that epoch was, like many another culture,
inferior to the Italian; because the Italian towns were in the rays of
artistic glory, whereas the Slav world was not; because on that
account the Slavs were wise enough to profit from the Italian masters;
is there anyone who, because some of the Slavs were and are unwise
enough to be more Italian than the Italians, will assert that the Slav
has no right to develop a national art, a national State?

It is superfluous to make a catalogue of those Ragusan writers who
were more or less successful in purging their Slav language of
Italianisms. Luckily they had at their doors the language of
Herzegovina, which is unanimously considered by philologists to be the
purest of the Serbo-Croat dialects. The most considerable of these
writers was Gundulić, although he never could forget that his
productions must be pious, and, beyond all other aims, present a
moral. It was in Poland that he saw the liberator of the Southern
Slavs, and what he sings in Osman, his chief work, is the overthrow of
Sultan Osman II. by Vladislav, heir to the Polish throne. As this poem
of the seventeenth century, this flowering of the Slav spirit, might
be looked upon as assailing "the integrity of the Turkish Empire," it
was only allowed to circulate in MS. until 1830. According to Dr.
Murko,[26] Professor of Slav Language and Literature at the
University of Leipzig, this work surpasses Tasso's _Jerusalem
Delivered_; but it is commonly thought that there is more literary
merit in Gundulić's _Dubravka_, a lovely, patriotic pastoral. The
worthy Franciscan Kačić,[27] who followed him with a work--_Familiar
Conversations on the Slovene Nation_--would perhaps be regarded
by us as more remarkable for his originality; but this patriotic
production, in verse and in prose, didactic, chronological,
allegorical and epic, has made him immortal. Beginning with
Teuta, the first king of the Slovene nation, who flourished, says
the author, about the year 3732 B.C., he proceeds imperturbably
and sometimes in moving numbers to relate the lives and virtues
of all the other Slovene kings, be they Bosnian, Croat, Serbian,
Bulgarian; it may well be that the secret of his vogue is, in the
words of the critic Lucianović, that "he was less a minstrel of
the past than of the future." On the fruitful island of Hvar
(Lesina) there arose an exquisite lyric poet, Lucić, whose
romantic drama _Robinja_ (The Female Slave) is said to have great
importance in the history of the modern theatre; but the most
famous of Hvar's poets was Hektorović (1487-1572). "This nobleman
with his democratic ideas," says the Russian savant Petrovski in
speaking of his _Ribanje_ (Fishing), "is the intimate friend of
his fisher-folk, the singers of national songs, and with his
remarkable realism he was three centuries before his time." When
we finally note that at Zadar in the sixteenth century there was
written _Planine_ (The Mountains), in which Zoranić gave us the
most patriotic work of mediæval Yugoslav literature, we may say
at least that the Dalmatian Yugoslavs did not abandon hope.

By the way, these remarks on the Slav literature of Dalmatia may be
thought otiose, for the national aspirations would not have been less
fervent if they had been expressed in Italian. One is reminded by the
well-known Italian writer, Giuseppe Prezzolini,[28] that until last
century the ruling classes of Piedmont spoke French; Alfieri and
Cavour had to "learn Italian," but who would on this account pretend
that Piedmont is a French province? There is really nothing strange
in the fact that the Pan-Slavist newspaper _L'Avenire_, published at
Dubrovnik from August 1848 until March 1849 by Dr. Casnačić, was
written in Italian, or that those Irish who desire to be free from
their hated oppressor have not completely given up the use of his
language.


HOW SHE SMOOTHED HER WAY

We have alluded to the caution of Dubrovnik, and one must confess that
in her story are such parlous situations, out of which there was
apparently no rescue, that in reading of them one is more and more
astonished at her customary enterprise. How did she succeed, for
instance, in contributing thirteen vessels to the fleet which Charles
V. sent against Tunis in 1535 without disturbing in the slightest her
good relations with the Sultan? All that she asked for was peace, and
so she paid a large sum to the Sultan every year, as also to the
pirates of Barbary, so that she could continue to navigate freely; in
the fifteenth century she had three hundred ships that were seen in
all parts of the Mediterranean and even in England. She had been wont
to pay five hundred ducats a year to the Kings of Hungary, and now and
then, when it was opportune, she sent this tribute to the Austrian
Archdukes, the rightful heirs of Hungary. To the captain of the Gulf
of Venice she dispatched every year a piece of plate, to the King of
the Two Sicilies she presented a dozen falcons, with a very respectful
letter, and the Pope, who was not forgotten, overlooked her annual
tribute to the Turk and proclaimed her to be the outer defences of
Christianity. (Let it not be forgotten that in 1451, four centuries
before Wilberforce's anti-slavery campaign, the Republic by a vote of
75 out of a total of 78 forbade its citizens to traffic in slaves, and
declared all slaves found on its territory to be free. "Such traffic,"
it said, "is base and contrary to all humanity ... namely, that the
human form, made after the image and similitude of our Creator, should
be turned to mercenary profit and sold as if it were brute beast.")

But of all the markets of the merchants of Dubrovnik, those which from
the days of old they most frequented, were the markets of the
Balkans. To Bulgaria and Serbia, Albania and Bosnia, they brought the
products of the West and of their own factories: the cloth and metal
goods, the silver and gold ornaments, the weapons, axes, harness,
glass, soap, perfumes, southern fruits, fish oil and herbs; and most
of all they valued their monopoly of salt, a most remunerative
privilege. As they could not obtain sufficient of it in their own
immediate territory, the Senate made a regulation that each vessel
which came back after a voyage of four years must bring a cargo of
salt. This was Dubrovnik's chief source of revenue until the end of
her independence in 1808, and efforts that were made by others to
break down this monopoly led to bitter conflicts. With regard to the
goods which they carried home with them from the Balkans, these
comprised cattle and cheese, dried fish from the Lake of Scutari,
hides of the wolf and fox and stag, wax, honey, wool and rough
wood-wares, and unworked metals. Some of the Balkan mines, such as the
silver mines of Novo Brdo in Serbia, they worked themselves, even as
the Saxons whom we find thus engaged in various parts of these lands.
Under the Turkish domination it must have been with joy that the
caravans from Dubrovnik were welcomed, bringing news of the one
Southern Slav State which remained free and prosperous. A good many of
these wandering merchants took Serbian or Bulgarian wives.


HER COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE

If the men from Dubrovnik were able to bring happy tidings of their
own Republic, such as the report, perhaps a little exaggerated, that
the wealth of those who lived in the street of merchants, which runs
parallel to the stately thoroughfare, the Stradone, amounted to a
hundred million ducats, they were able to give very little news of the
more distant Southern Slavs. The Serbs had not forgotten that brothers
of theirs were living in the north-west. If in the days of the Turkish
oppression they had been inclined to be oblivious of the Croats, yet
they could not but remember that Dušan's sister had married the
Croatian prince, Mladen III. There is no incident connected with
Dušan that is not treasured in the memory of the Serbs.


HER NORTHERN KINSMEN AND THE MILITARY FRONTIERS

For a long time the Habsburgs had been planning to employ the Croats,
who were excellent troops, as a bulwark against the Turks. And
although Ferdinand of Habsburg, on being elected to the throne of
Croatia on the 1st of January 1527, had sworn to respect the ancient
rights and traditions of the realm, his heirs favoured more and more a
policy of centralization; and in 1578, taking advantage of a serious
agrarian conflict between nobles and peasants in Croatia, the
Habsburgs instituted the Military Frontiers, the famous Vojna Krajina,
one for Croatia proper, with Karlovac as capital, the other for the
adjacent Slavonia, with the capital at Varazdin. Croatia's autonomy
was ignored.

This method of guarding the frontiers had been employed by the Romans,
who made over lands to non-commissioned officers and men on condition
that their male descendants rendered military service. Those men who
had no children received no lands. Alexander Severus, who introduced
this arrangement, used to say that a man would fight better if at the
same time he were defending his own hearth. Under Diocletian the
"miles castellani" or "limitanei," as they were termed, had slaves and
cattle allotted to them, so that the land's development should not be
hindered through lack of labour or on account of the owners losing the
physical capacity for work.

The Habsburgs were assisted in their scheme by various causes, one of
which was the poverty of the soil in certain parts of Croatia, so that
it came as a relief to many of the struggling inhabitants that for the
future they would be provided for. The greatest misery was also
prevalent at this time in consequence of the plague which desolated
parts of Croatia and Istria. The distress was particularly acute in
Istria, where between the years 1300 and 1600 the plague was rampant on
thirty-nine occasions, the town of Triest being visited in ten
different years between 1502 and 1558; and in the year 1600 the port
of Pola was reduced to four hundred inhabitants. Venice attempted to
colonize the desert places with Italian farmers, but having failed on
account of malaria and the lack of water, she called in a more
vigorous element, the Slav from Dalmatia and Bosnia. Meanwhile the
towns, in which were the descendants of those who had come from Italy
in the days of the Roman Empire, fell more profoundly into decay.
Those western towns looked on the Slav with disdain, they would not
mingle with the rural population; but as these were much more active
and were often strengthened by fresh immigrants, one thought that they
would gradually swamp the more effete men of the towns. And, on the
other hand, the townsmen weakened their position by continually
breaking, on account of economic disputes, the ties between themselves
and Venice. And as example of their frequent attitude towards Venice,
we may take the words which the deputies of Triest used in 1518 in the
presence of the Emperor Maximilian: "We would all of us prefer to
die," they said, "rather than to fall under the domination of Venice."
Such language may, of course have been a compliment; and yet it does
not seem unlikely that the people of Triest had some knowledge of the
ruin and death that were overtaking all the Dalmatian towns with the
one exception of Dubrovnik, which was independent.

Allusion has been made to the Slavs who came from Bosnia; one may ask
how it was that the Turks allowed them to depart. On such an extensive
frontier it would not be difficult for people to escape; that they did
so is made evident by all the solemn treaty clauses which declared
that they should be forthwith delivered to their rightful owners. The
Turks were quite as ready to bind themselves in this fashion. There
is, for example, the treaty which settles what travelling expenses the
Venetians are to pay to the emissary of the Pasha of Travnik on his
way to Zadar, how much velvet, how many loaves of sugar and how many
pots of theriac must be provided for each member of his entourage; and
in the same treaty it is laid down that the Turks are to give up all
those who have deserted to them, yea even if they have become
Muhammedans. But the Turkish authorities never heard of any such
people. And the Slavs were passing to and fro from one Yugoslav land
to another, always thinking that in the new land life must be more
tolerable.


THE OPPRESSIVE OVERLORDS OF THE YUGOSLAVS

Now and then we hear of insurrections; thus the Serbs of the Banat
revolted in 1594, allied themselves to Prince Batthory of Transylvania
and offered him the Serbian crown. With an army of Serbs and
Hungarians the Prince appeared on the Danube with the intention of
aiding the Bulgars. He won a splendid victory over the Turk, but in
gaining it he had exhausted himself, and the Turk took his usual
revenge. In Croatia the absolutist policy of Leopold I. exasperated
the people to such an extent that they forgot their quarrels with the
Magyars in order to be able to defend their rights against the attacks
of Vienna. The Hungarian-Croatian magnates, amongst whom were the
Croats Peter Zrinsky, the Ban, and Christopher Frankopan, conspired to
overthrow the Habsburgs. When the plot was discovered the conspirators
were executed in 1671 at Wiener Neustadt. In the spring of 1919, when
the bones of these two patriots were brought back to Croatia and
buried after a series of imposing and most moving ceremonies, Austria
was in such a state of hunger that she waived her good taste and
received what she had exacted for the bones, namely, five hundred
trucks of meat and potatoes. After the battle of Vienna in 1683 both
Serbs and Bulgars rose, for it seemed to many hopeful people that the
Turk was on the point of dissolution. There was an outbreak in the
Bulgarian mountain village of Čiprovtsi, but this was suffocated
with such ferocity that for more than a hundred years the Bulgar would
not make another effort. The spirit of the Slav appeared to have gone
out of him. Wars that were disastrous to Turkey brought the Russians
to the Danube and the Austrians to within twelve leagues of Sofia, but
the Bulgar stayed at home with his black memories. A better fortune
attended the Serbs who flocked to the standard of George Branković,
a descendant of the old despots, in the Banat. With the goodwill of
Leopold I. they fought by the side of his own troops, and after these
latter were withdrawn, in consequence of the new campaign against
Louis XIV., the Serbs continued to wage war with the Turks, and so
successfully that Leopold became anxious lest Branković should
found an independent Serbian State. He therefore caused him and the
leaders of his army to be captured. Branković was brought, a
prisoner, to Vienna. He survived in captivity at Eger for twenty-two
years.[29]


THE GREAT MIGRATION UNDER THE PATRIARCH

In the year 1690 there happened the vast exodus of 30,000 Serbian
families who migrated across the Danube and the Save under the
leadership of the Patriarch of Peć, Arsenius Čarnoević. An
oleograph of a picture illustrating this event is found in almost
every Serbian house, be it private house or Government building. These
refugees settled in Syrmia, Slavonia, the Banat and Bačka, and
received from the Emperor certain rights, such as that of electing
their voivoda (duke), of owning land, and so forth; their privileges
were not always respected, but the Serbian immigrants remained
faithful to Austria.... The land of Peć, from which the Patriarch
fled, with the neighbouring Djakovica and Prizren, became Muhammedan
Albanian territories.

[Mr. Brailsford[30] in 1903 found that in these parts the Albanian was
overwhelmingly predominant, and that he refused to tolerate the claims
of the Serbian minority. Saying that his race, descended from the
Illyrians, was the most ancient in the Peninsula, he objected to this
particular region being called Old Serbia simply because it was once
upon a time conquered by Dušan. In 1903 the Serbs of the district
of Prizren and Peć numbered 5000 householders against 20,000 to
25,000 Albanians. As for the towns: "In Prizren," said an Albanian,
"there are two European families, while the soil of Djakovica is still
clean."[31] The life which these people led was one of misery--tribute
in some form or other had to be given to an Albanian bravo, who made
himself that family's protector, and, in spite of that, the holding of
any property, house or land or chattels, seems to have depended on
Albanian caprice, and the physical state of the Serbs was wretched,
through lack of nourishment and disease. Various efforts had been made
to render the land more endurable for those who were not Muhammedan
Albanians; for example, a Christian _gendarmerie_ was introduced, but
as they were not allowed to carry arms they spent their useless days
in the police stations. They filled the Albanians with scorn, and made
them shout more vociferously their cry of "Albania for the Albanian
tribes!" Under these conditions it says much for the stamina of the
Serbs that they persisted in their old faith; a certain number--Mr.
Brailsford came across some of them in the district of Gora, near
Prizren--have been converted to Islam, but in secret observe their old
religion.]

A Serbian historian, Mr. Tomić of the Belgrade National Library,
has now discovered that these uncompromising Muhammedan Albanians are
not--as previous Serbian and other historians have written--descended
from Albanians who flowed into the country because of its evacuation
by the Patriarch Arsenius and his flock. When the Austrian armies
penetrated to this region in the winter of 1689-1690, the Imperialists
were on good terms both with the Serbian Orthodox people whom they
found there and with the Albanian Catholics; but after the death of
Piccolomini on the 8th of December (which was followed by that of the
Catholic Archbishop), his successor, the Duke of Holstein, alienated
the people, and when they would not obey his commands he set fire to
their villages, this alienating them completely. The fortune of war
then turned against the Austrians, who were compelled to retreat, and
the Serbian Patriarch, with his treasury and a number of priests and
monks, fled with them. They hoped that this exodus was to be of a
temporary character, but in 1690 the Imperialists had to continue
their retreat, taking with them across the Save and the Danube not
only the Serbs who had, like Arsenius, sought refuge in Serbia, but a
far more numerous body whose domicile had always been Serbia itself.
What tells against the theory of the 30,000 families from Peć and
Old Serbia is the fact that the Turkish troops followed so closely on
the heels of the Austrians that the Patriarch and his clergy had great
trouble in escaping themselves, and in addition to the Turk there was
the difficulty of those mountain roads in the middle of winter. Thus
it seems likely that most of the Serbian population of what is called
Old Serbia remained there. The previous historians, who say that such
a vast number followed the Patriarch and his priests, have based
themselves, it appears, on the notes and chronicles of those priests.
And the people, deprived of the guidance of their priests--who were
then the spiritual and lay and military leaders--found it difficult to
stand out against conversion. Half a century before this a great many
Catholic and Orthodox Serbs of those parts had embraced Islam, in
order to escape the financial and military burdens which were laid on
Christian men; the women and girls would continue to profess
Christianity. This phenomenon is described by many travellers, such as
Gregory Massarechi, a Catholic missionary for Prizren and the
neighbourhood, who says in his report of 1651 that in the village of
Suha Reka on the left bank of the White Drin there used to be one
hundred and fifty Christian houses, but that he only found thirty-six
or thirty-seven Christian women, the men having all gone over to
Islam. People were wont to come secretly to him for confession and to
communicate; he tells how these converted men would marry Christian
women, but would leave them Christian all their lives, and only on his
deathbed would a man ask his wife to be converted also.

The Prophet had also found his way into many households of Montenegro,
where the clans, with neither civil nor military government, had been
compelled, for their protection, to live in a patriarchal fashion: the
people--that is, the chiefs of the clans--elected a bishop and
gathered round him as the champion of their religion against Islam.
Until the time of Danilo (1697-1737) there had been fourteen bishops.
During his reign the problem of Turkish penetration was taken in hand.
It was intolerable that Montenegrin families should stand well with
the Sultan because one of their members had gone over to Islam. The
small, untidy village of Virpazar, by the Lake of Scutari, has got a
certain fame, because the chosen men who were to purge the country of
this evil started out from there on Christmas Eve in 1703. Those who
participated in the "Montenegrin Vespers" were not likely to forget
the incidents of that impressive ceremony. The Bishop celebrated Mass,
and from the consecrated tapers in his hand the people lit their own.
Every man was armed. They knelt--their tapers hardly trembling--and
they kissed the sacred image which the Bishop held. Then he blessed
their weapons and they sallied forth, running round the lake and
climbing up the rough, long road to Cetinje. Every house was visited
in which there was a Moslem, and the choice was given of repudiation
or of death. With such missionaries and with subjects such as these to
work upon, you could not hope that the negotiations would be quite
pacific. Many of the Moslem, young and old, were slaughtered, and when
Mass was sung on Christmas morning in the rugged, little monastery of
Cetinje, many of the chosen men assembled, weary but content, and gave
whole-hearted thanks to God that Montenegro had been liberated from
the scourge.

As for those who came under the influence of Islam in Old Serbia, they
were left after 1737 even more to their own resources, as the zone
which united them to the main body of Serbs was depleted by another
great exodus, under Patriarch Arsenius IV., Šakabenta. But,
although these men of Serbian origin preserve sometimes this or that
peculiarly Serbian custom, yet, as Mr. Tomić says:[32] "Living
together with the Muhammedan Albanians, they have assumed the Albanian
type and become the most savage foes of the Orthodox religion and of
the people from which they are sprung. The popular saying," he adds,
"is right which asserts that: 'A Christian become a Turk is worse than
a real Turk.'" Of course, in order to make it appear that he was a
real Albanian, there was always a tendency for an Albanized Serb to be
preternaturally oppressive. And up to a short time ago it was very
cold comfort for the Serbs to learn that many of these people are of
Serbian ancestry. But, as we shall see further on, the old, mediæval
friendship between the Serbian and Albanian rulers is extending to the
people, and this--provided that a sinister external pressure can be
warded off--will bear good fruit.

On behalf of the afore-mentioned 30,000 families the Patriarch
negotiated with the Habsburgs and obtained very far-reaching rights,
which permitted the Serbian people to form in Hungary a _corpus
separatum_. A point which to Serbian eyes had extreme importance was
the institution of a National Congress, to sit at Karlovci on the
Danube in Syrmia, and, amongst other functions, to designate the
Patriarch, whose seat was to be (and remains to this day) Karlovci,
where a friendly white village on the rising ground, which anyhow
would make it famous for the red wine and plum brandy, has received in
its midst the marble palace of the Patriarch, a gorgeous church and
various magnificent red and white buildings which look like so many
Government offices but are, in fact, devoted to Church affairs, the
training of theological students and so forth. Their Patriarchate at
Karlovci appeared to the Serbs as the rock of their nationality
outside Serbia. The Constitution granted to them did not make them
precisely a State within a State, but at least it set up a
political-religious unity--for the privileges included those of having
a chief, the voivoda, and of having a certain territory with
autonomous internal organization and exemption from all taxes. Here
the Serbs, forming a separate and distinct group, with their own
religion, calendar and alphabet, and with their own aspirations, would
be able to stretch out their hands--prudently, of course--to their
scattered brothers. So the Serbs began to whisper to the Croats of the
ancient days; the Croats heard them gladly, but they could not stop
another voice from whispering as well. They had lived for so long with
another religion, another civilization, their eyes had been turned in
other directions, their hearts been filled with other hopes. And now
it was as if the modern voice was being interrupted by the ancient
voice. The Croats were inclined to ask the interrupter to be silent,
but they found they could not live without him.


ACTIVITIES OF THE SOUTHERN SLAVS UNDER THE HABSBURGS

In the Banat and elsewhere under Habsburg rule the Serbs were filling
their accustomed part and fighting, now against the Turk and now
against Rakoczi's insurrection, during which, between 1703 and 1711,
they are said to have lost about a hundred thousand men. Prince Eugene
of Savoy, in whose campaigns they took a large share, described them
as "his best scouts, his lightest cavalry, his most trusted
garrisons." And they are rewarded--Joseph I., making use of very
chosen phrases, insists on the merits of the Serbs and confirms their
privileges. And until the Treaty of Pojarevac these privileges are
maintained immune. This treaty came at the conclusion of the 1716-1718
war against the Turks; it put the Banat in the hands of Austria, who
made it a Crown-land, with military government and autonomous
administration. From this time onward the country, which had had an
exclusively Serbian colouring, begins to receive an influx of
strangers. The German governing class introduce Germans from the
Rhine, from Saxony, from Würtemberg, Bavaria, Upper and Lower Austria
and Tirol. Not only are these colonists settled in some of the most
fertile parts, but Vienna also makes enormous grants of land in the
Banat to lofty military personages and to families of the
aristocracy, and these in their turn assist the immigration of
Germans.

But before the Habsburgs could continue in their efforts to
assimilate, by one process or another, the Southern Slavs in the
Empire, it was necessary to induce them to accept the Pragmatic
Sanction, for Charles VI., the reigning Emperor, had lost his only son
and wished to secure the succession to Maria Theresa. It is
interesting to see that Croatia negotiated independently of Hungary,
that she recognized the Pragmatic Sanction in 1713, whereas the
Magyars did not do so until 1733. Consequently, if the Emperor had
died between these two dates Croatia would have been separated
completely from Hungary. Maria Theresa would have become Queen of
Croatia, but the Magyars would not have been obliged to place
themselves under her. The Croats on this occasion declared that the
crown of Croatia was to pass to that member of the House of Habsburg
who should reign not only in Austria but also in the other hereditary
Austrian lands, for the Croats wanted publicly to show that any
separation from the Slovenes of Carniola, Carinthia and Styria would
be far less endurable for them than separation from Hungary. "It is
neither by force nor yet the spirit of slavery," they said, "that we
have been put under the domination of Hungary; we have submitted
ourselves voluntarily, and not to the royalty but to the king of the
Hungarians."

The Serb and Croat element in the Austrian army was at this time
greater than the sum of all the others, and, owing to the privileges
which their services acquired for them, they came to be regarded with
extreme suspicion by the Magyars. It was under Magyar influence that
Maria Theresa abolished the Croatian council, confided its functions
to the Hungarian Government, and, on the same occasion, in 1779,
proclaimed the town of Rieka (Fiume), with its surroundings, to be
"_separatum sacræ regni Hungariæ coronæ adnexum corpus_." Rieka, like
Triest, had been a free town under the Habsburgs, the reason being
that they were the chief arteries of trade, so that a greater freedom
was desirable. Like Triest, Rieka does not appear up to this date to
have shown any hankering for Venice, and Maria Theresa's diploma
which renews the freedom is hardly evidence, as some people have
asserted, that the town was throbbing with Italian sympathies.


THE POSITION OF THEIR CHURCH

More and more Germans were being brought into the Banat, and to make
room for some between Temešvar and Arad the Roumanians, who had
settled there, were transferred, in 1765, to the western county of
Torontal. About half a century before this the Roumanian Bishop of
Transylvania, with most of his clergy, passed from the Orthodox to the
Greek Catholic Church; those of his flock who did not follow him
attached themselves to the Serbian Church, and after a considerable
time were given by Joseph II. in 1786 a Roumanian bishopric, at Sibiu.
This bishopric was placed under the administration of the Serbian
Patriarch at Karlovci "_in dogmaticis et pure spiritualibus_," which
seems to show that the other privileges of the Serbian Church did not
extend to the Roumanians. The Serbs had, from the beginning of the
thirteenth century, been founding monasteries, and, although about
twenty were secularized or affiliated to others by Maria Theresa, yet
there remained eleven in the Banat and one, Hodosh, to the north of
the Maroš; and as the Roumanians had no monasteries at all they
were received as guests in some of these. And so things continued for
about a hundred years.


SERBS ASSIST THE BULGARIAN RENASCENCE

While the Serbs were flourishing, ecclesiastically, in the Banat, the
Bulgars had been painfully keeping alive, until 1767, their lonely
Patriarchate at Ochrida. Time and again the Greek Patriarch at
Constantinople had tried to suppress it, at first on account of
cupidity and afterwards, say the Bulgars, for fear lest it should help
to arouse the Bulgarian national spirit; but that spirit had fallen to
such a depth that the second edition of a comparative lexicon of the
Slav languages, which was issued, at the behest of the Empress
Catharine in 1791, makes no mention of Bulgarian, and in 1814 the
Slavist Dobrovsky regarded Bulgarian as a form of Serbian. And yet,
say the Bulgars, the national spirit survived so wonderfully by those
far waters of Macedonia that even when the Greek language was
introduced into the offices and the Church administration, and when
Greeks had usurped the throne of St. Clement, they still found it
possible to stand out for the independence of their Church, which
handed on the memories of the Bulgarian past. We must be allowed to be
sceptical--the town of Ochrida in the fifteenth, sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries is said by contemporary writers to be now in
Serbian, now in Bulgarian, now in Macedonian territory. And the very
observant Patriarch Brkić of the eighteenth century tells us, in a
calm, passionless description of the diocese, which he wrote in
exile--he was the last Patriarch of Peć--that the inhabitants of a
place called Rekalije, in the district of Djakovica, are not Albanians
but Serbs and Bulgars who had been, a short time before, converted to
Islam. It seems probable that the sharp divisions of Serb, Bulgar, and
so on, did not then exist, and that the Greek Patriarch at
Constantinople did himself not know what variety of reprehensible Slav
it was that lived in those parts.... The last Patriarch of Ochrida,
whose name was likewise Arsenius, spent the remainder of his life in
exile at Mt. Athos, and there, in another monastery, was a pale,
sickly monk, poring over crabbed MSS. This Païssu, a Bulgar, had
entered, like his elder brother, the great Serbian monastery of
Hilendar. We know from him that while the various Orthodox monks of
Mt. Athos--Greeks, Bulgars, Russians, Serbs and Vlachs--were
frequently at loggerheads, yet the others even more frequently
combined to fall upon the Bulgars and to upbraid them because their
history had not been glorious and because they had an insufficient
number of saints. The Bulgar was nothing but a servant of the Greek;
Bulgarian was no doubt written in a monastery here and there, but as
for the spoken language, were not the townsfolk often ashamed of it?
Did they not prefer to talk Greek? "I was filled with sadness," says
Païssu, "on account of my race." There happened to be at Hilendar the
monk Obradović, who was less enthusiastic about Glagolitic than
about the songs sung by the peasant. With the fundamental thought of
working for the whole people, including the women, he clung to the
idea of a literature in the popular, rather than in the old Church
language. He was to set out, in pursuit of Western science, to France
and Italy and England--he spent six months in London. The whole people
was dear to him; he looked beyond their differences of religion, their
other differences, and saw the brotherhood, in race and speech, of all
the Southern Slav countries. He was to become one of the great
inspirers of modern Serbia and her first Minister of Education.[33] He
urged young Païssu to travel among his countrymen in search of
manuscripts and legends. If only he could find the buried splendour of
his people and call it into life again. And before he died--he
suffered from continual headaches and an internal malady--he had
finished, in 1762, his book, _Slav-Bulgarian History of the Bulgarian
People and Rulers and Saints_. This naif, imperfect book, more lyric
than scientific, but sincere and impassioned, has played a part in
reminding the Bulgars of their story; it is the fountain-head of the
Bulgarian Renascence.

In Serbia the gallant Captain Kotča also tried to begin for his
country a Renascence. Russia and Austria declared war against the
Turks in 1787. The Serbian volunteers, who included Kara George,
crossed the Danube and fought with great courage. Yet the Austrians
were beaten and Kotča was captured, by treachery, in the Banat; he
was brought back to Serbia and impaled with sixty of his comrades. But
in the treaty of 1791 the Turks undertook to give autonomy to the
Serbs of the Pashalik of Belgrade, and to keep from their lands in
future the janissaries who had wrought so much mischief.


THE GERMAN COLONISTS IN THE BANAT

Further down the Danube, though, there would be a janissary watching a
frontiersman, a Graničar, on the opposite bank, waiting to kill
him--both of them Serbs, both standing on Serbian land.... The
military frontier regiments were not only organized to defend, in a
long line, Croatia, Slavonia, Bačka and the Banat from Turkish
inroads, they had also to fight for the Habsburgs wherever a war was
toward. Two centuries ago, at the time when the Serbian regiments were
in a privileged position--the entire regiment, officers and men,
consisting of Serbs, and their own arms being on the flag--it was
their destiny to go to France, Italy and Spain, as afterwards to the
battle of Leipzig and to Schleswig-Holstein. They may have grumbled a
good deal on the way to all these battles, but once the fighting had
begun they grumbled no more, thus resembling in two respects the
French soldier. And this practice of going abroad on behalf of the
Empire was continued till the frontier regiments, about fifty years
ago, were broken up. Thus Joseph Eberle and George Huber were killed
during the Italian campaign of 1848-1849. These men were German
colonists, whose introduction had been so much encouraged in the
eighteenth century. But, in order to separate Protestant Hungary from
the Turks, so that the two should not unite against the Catholic
Habsburgs, it was laid down by Prince Eugene that all the German
colonists had to be Catholics. Some Protestants managed to settle in
Lescovac, where they held secret services during the night; but in
1726 this was reported to the Prefect of Bela Crkva, whereupon he sent
word that if they would not be converted they would each receive
twenty-five strokes with a birch.... Of course, those who lived on the
frontier lands were subject to the same conditions as their
neighbours. German frontier regiments existed side by side with
Serbian regiments, and the life of all those people can be studied in
a book[34] written by the German frontier village of Franzfeld and
published in 1893, a few months after Franzfeld had celebrated its
centenary. There would, no doubt, be variations enough in the domestic
arrangements of Franzfeld and those of Zrepaja, the neighbouring
Serbian village, some miles away; but, as the inhabitants of Franzfeld
have now been gathered into Yugoslavia, it is not without interest if
we see what sort of a life they have led. The tale of how these
Lutherans from Würtemberg laid out and constructed and painted their
village, with all the tremendously broad, tremendously straight roads
running parallel and at right angles to each other, with the
church--whose decorations are a few stars on the ceiling--the pastor's
house and the lawyer's and the town hall and other important houses
standing round a square of mulberry trees in the middle of the
place--the tale of all this is told in as deliciously matter-of-fact a
manner as _Robinson Crusoe_. The picturesque, as in that book,
startles us now and then, with a vivid scene--until 1848, we are told,
at the arrival of a staff-officer or of a general, every bell in the
place had to be set ringing and gunpowder had to be fired off. One
finds oneself revelling in the minuteness of the descriptions, one
follows happily or sadly the fortunes of Ruppenthal and Kopp and
Morgenstern. Everything is true, for the compilers of the book have
felt, like Defoe, that "this supplying a story by invention is
certainly a most scandalous crime." We are given all the names of
those who at the beginning occupied the ninety-nine houses--the
hundredth being used as an inn--with their place of origin, the
numbers of their male and female dependants, and by what means they
had hitherto earned their bread. Many houses have been added since
that time. Among all the Germans, house No. 79 was occupied by George
Siráky, a Hungarian who had been a peasant. Ten years afterwards
another list is made and Siráky still disposes of the same twenty-four
"yoke"[35] of plough-land, ten of meadow and one of garden, which he
had originally been given, whereas some of the others had increased or
diminished their holdings. Then we lose sight of him, and his name
does not become one of those which reappears in succeeding
generations. Of course, the colony was established on a military
basis; an officer, usually a lieutenant, with one or more
non-commissioned officers, was stationed there, as the representative
of a commandant who presided over several villages. The resident
officer was supposed to maintain law and order, to see to it that the
people sowed their land at the right season, and to inform the
commandant of any delinquency, for the lieutenant was not allowed to
punish anyone. As one or more of the able-bodied men belonging to a
house might be absent for a long time on military service or in
captivity, or else through sickness or wounds be unfit to work, and
through lack of means the householder not be in a position to hire
day-labourers, in that case his fellow-villagers, one after another,
were obliged to assist him without payment. In order that all possible
respect should be attached to the chief man and woman of a house--the
house-father and house-mother--these were not liable to punishment for
small offences, and if a considerable offence made it necessary to
punish them, then they were first of all deposed from their position.
Various public posts were filled by the house-fathers or other men,
and for refusing to accept such a post a man was commonly arrested;
but this punishment, as well as that of so many strokes with a cane
(which seems to have been the most usual penalty), was abolished by
1850. The military frontier system came to an end in 1872, at which
time the communal life, which had been found to be very irksome, was
also gradually done away with. Franzfeld is now a prosperous and
peaceful place; their horses are well known, they breed excellent
cattle and pigs and sheep, and they say of themselves that out of one
Franzfeld man you can make a couple of Jews and there will still
remain a Franzfeld man. They tell how once or twice a Hungarian Jew
has opened a shop in the village, selling his goods very cheaply for
two or three months, at a lower price, in fact, than he paid for them,
and then putting up the prices; but as soon as he does that he is
boycotted. The aliens who have settled in Franzfeld--Hungarians,
Slovaks and Roumanians--have come as servants, have married Franzfeld
girls and are looked upon as Germans. The same German dialect is
spoken as in Würtemberg; troops from that country marched through
Franzfeld during the War. But Serbian, the villagers told me, is the
international language of at any rate western Banat, in spite of the
Magyars who, as in other parts, made for the last few years of their
domination extreme efforts on behalf of their unlovely language. They
supplied Franzfeld with schoolmasters and mistresses who could speak
no German and no Serbian, so that it was very difficult for both
sides. And the authorities told the pastor that the chief truths of
religion, they considered, should be taught in Hungarian. But the
pastor did not agree with them and they let the matter drop. Franzfeld
has seen wild days, particularly in 1848, and her one monument records
a calamity of two of her sons who vanished down a well which they were
sinking. Of itself the land is not very fertile, but the people have
been so successful that they have founded a colony, Franzjosephsfeld,
in Bosnia--they multiplied too greatly for their own soil to support
them. They speak, many of them, five languages, and they will not be
the least worthy of Yugoslav subjects. [Their interests are much more
agricultural than political.] With regard to their multiplication, by
the way, it is related in this centenary book, among much curious
information, that when another Franzfelder comes into the world it is
usual to present certain largesse to the midwife, namely, one gulden
(this was written in Austrian times), a loaf of bread, a little jar of
lard and a few kilograms of white flour. In the old military period
this personage was also, like the doctor and the schoolmaster, "on the
strength." The last of those who bore the rank of Company-Midwife was
Gertrude Metz; she was pensioned after thirty-eight years, and
continued for a few years in private practice.


THE SOUTHERN SLAV COLONISTS AND THEIR RELIGION

The Magyars, being themselves of at least two religions, did not
interfere in the religious matters of those whom they called "the
nationalities" save to ask, with more or less firmness--it made a
difference if they were dealing with Protestant Slovaks or with
Protestant Germans--that the language of the ruling race should be
employed. This comparative toleration was, of course, tempered by
exceptions. Thus in the very Catholic city of Pečuj in Baranja the
treatment applied to other religions depended on the individual
bishop. Bishop Nesselrode, for instance, chased them all away, and
until 1790 they were seldom permitted within fourteen kilometres of
the town.

The Austrians in the eighteenth century constrained a good many
Southern Slavs to enter the Church of Rome. Austria has always been
rich in faithful sons of the Church. Some years ago, for example, I
happened in various parts of Dalmatia and Herzegovina to be from time
to time the travelling companion of an elderly Viennese. He told me
how he had lately impressed upon the mother of his illegitimate son
that the boy must receive a thoroughly Catholic education, and in
every place this gentleman made his patronage of an hotel dependent on
the proprietor's religion, which he frequently knew before we got
there. I saw him last at Mostar in distress, because the only good
hotel was administered by an Israelite of whose religion he
disapproved, and the weather, as it often is at Mostar, was so
oppressingly hot that I suppose he had not energy enough to try to
convert him....


BUNJEVCI, ŠOKCI AND KRAŠOVANI

Perhaps Austria would not have displayed such fervour in creating
Bunjevci, Šokci and Krašovani if she had known that these Roman
Catholic Slavs would remain, on the whole, very good Slavs. The
Bunjevci, who live for the most part in Bačka and Baranja, came
originally from the Buna district of Herzegovina. The total population
of the town of Subotica is 90,000, and 73,000 of these are Bunjevci,
whose peculiarity is that the old father stays in the town house,
while his sons, with their wives and children, drive out on Monday
morning over that rather featureless landscape to the farm, which may
be at a considerable distance, and there they remain till the end of
the week. They are a quiet, industrious people who have lived
withdrawn, as it were, from the world since the twenty-five or thirty
families escaped from the Turks; and as they brought with them only
that number of surnames it is now customary to add a distinguishing
name. Thus the Vojnić family has divided into branches, such as
Vojnić-Heiduk, Vojnić-Kortmić, Vojnić-Purča. The Bunjevci seem,
although Catholics, to incline less to the Croats than to the Serbs,
some of whose customs--those, for instance, of Christmas--they share.
But in merry-making they are a great deal more subdued, save that, in
drinking to some one's health, you are expected to empty three
glasses. In the intervals of a Bunjevci dance at Subotica men would
promenade the room arm-in-arm with men and girls with girls. The faces
of all of them express entire goodness of heart and absence of guile;
many of the girls, who looked like early portraits of Queen Victoria,
were arrayed in the local costume, which permits great variety of
colour so long as the lady wears, I am told, about fifteen petticoats.
These worthy people used to have nothing but their Church, and are now
extremely religious. The man who has most influence over them is
Blaško Rajić, a priest and deputy, who was not always able to prevent
a Hungarian Archbishop from sending a priest to his church, where he
held services in Magyar. During one night, at all events, this church
caused the Magyars much annoyance. It was at the beginning of the
Great War--they had accused Rajić of making signals from the tower,
which is very high; and in order to prove their accusation they sent a
large body of soldiers, who surrounded the church, on a boisterous
winter's night. Sure enough, the signals were seen to be flashing up
there. The church was locked and a blast of the bugles had no
effect--save that a few Bunjevci looked out of their windows--for the
flashes did not cease. Then the captain commanded his men to give a
mighty shout: "Put out those lights! Put out those lights!" But not
the least notice was taken. There was nothing to do but to wait until
Rajić, or whoever it was, should finish his nefarious business and
come down. About an hour later, though, the wind became so piercing
that a non-commissioned officer suggested that the captain should send
for the big drum; the noise of that, said he, would surely reach that
devil in the tower. But the big drum, when it came, had no success.
The noise it made, reinforced by those of the bugles and the men's
shouting, was such that some Bunjevci dressed themselves and ventured
out into the cold, to see what really all the turmoil was about. To
one of them the freezing captain yelled that he knew perfectly the
criminal had heard them, and that he went on with his accursed flashes
since he recognized that this would be the last base act that he would
ever do on earth. For the remainder of that night the captain and his
men, not with the hope that they would be obeyed but merely to warm
themselves a little, kept on shouting now and then, "Put out those
lights!" And in the dawn the non-commissioned officer discovered that
the signals had been moonlight on some broken glass that was being
shaken by the wind.... One sees in the very well-arranged archives of
the town of Sombor that the Bunjevci were accustomed, like the
Germans, to ally themselves with the Magyars and thus give them a
majority. Only in the last ten years at Subotica (and not at all at
Sombor) did they ask for their rights; they had seemed conscious of
the religious difference between themselves and the Serbs, unconscious
that they were of the same race and language. The Magyars attempted to
show in Paris that the Bunjevci are not Slavs, but the remains of the
Kumani (who died out in those parts about five to six hundred years
ago and were not Magyars). In the census of twenty years ago the
Bunjevci were called Serbo-Croats, in accordance with a monograph,
"Sabotca Varosh Története," in which Professor Ivanji, a Magyar, said
they were simply Catholic Serbs. In the census of 1910 the Bunjevci
are put under the heading "Égyebek," which means "miscellaneous."

This census juggling by the Magyars was one of their milder methods of
administration. The term Serbo-Croat came to be avoided, and, so that
foreigners should be misled, the Yugoslavs in Baranja were classified
as Serbs, Croats, Illyrians, Šokci, Bunjevci, Dalmatians and so
forth. The Šokci, who were also converted in the eighteenth century
to the Roman Catholic Church, are mostly found to-day in Baranja. The
name by which they are known is derived from the Serbo-Croatian word
_šaka_, the palm of the hand, and refers to the fact that the
Catholics cross themselves with the open hand, whereas the Orthodox
join the tips of the thumb and first two fingers. The Šokci are
considered a weaker people than the Bunjevci; the mothers--they say it
is love--are often so weak that they allow their children to do
anything they like at home, and would not think of remonstrating with
them if they wear their caps in church. Among the Šokci none is of
a higher than the peasant class, for which reason their priests have
usually been Magyars. He who ministers to the village of Szalánta,
however, is a Croatian poet. The mayor of that village--I believe a
typical specimen of the Šokci--was a ragged, humorous-looking
person with a very bushy moustache. He was in remarkable contrast with
the young Magyar schoolmaster, whose remuneration is largely in kind.
This gentleman looked as if he would be well content if the parents of
his children sent him not eggs, butter and chickens, but armfuls of
flowers. A month before the Hungarian revolution in 1918 an order had
come from Buda-Pest to the effect that the lowest class in a school
was to receive instruction solely in its own language, but the
Hungarian Republic ordered that no history was to be taught, since it
praises kings.

As for the Krašovani, who inhabit five villages of the mining
district of Resica in Caras-Severin, the eastern county of the Banat,
they also were converted by Maria Theresa, in whose time they fled
from Montenegro, Macedonia and the Bulgarian frontier. Gradually they
have come to reckon themselves as Croats, owing to their priests who
come from Croatia. They are all big men with luxuriant moustaches.

There is a district in southern Russia, near the Black Sea, which is
called New Serbia. It is the fertile country that was chosen by
150,000 Southern Slavs when they preferred, in 1768, to go into exile
rather than change their religion, like the Bunjevci, the Šokci and
the Krašovani. They preserve some traces of their origin, but can
no longer be considered Yugoslavs.

In speaking of these converts and their descendants we have alluded to
the Buda-Pest policy of enforcing the Magyar language. This movement
may be studied from the close of the eighteenth century in Croatia,
where Latin had hitherto been the official language. In 1790 the
Croats were again delivered by Leopold II. to the Magyars, who were
bent upon executing their designs.

    FOOTNOTES:

    [Footnote 20: Cf. _La Question Yougo-Slav_, by Vouk Primorac.
    Paris, 1918.]

    [Footnote 21: When the Slav first arrived in these
    territories the Romans everywhere yielded to them, and while
    the more prosperous Romans settled on the coast, the others
    retired to the mountains. One of the sea-towns, by the way,
    to which the Romans fled was Split, where they could live in
    the ruins of Diocletian's enormous, decadent palace; and from
    extant lists of the mayors of that town we see that until the
    tenth century they all had Latin names, from then till the
    twelfth century we find partly Latin and partly Slav names,
    and during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries their
    names were nearly always Slav. Those Romans--of course not
    implying by that word that their forbears had come from Rome
    or even from Italy--those refugees who took to the mountains
    mingled with the Slavs and were also joined by wandering
    shepherds from Wallachia, owing to whom all this variegated
    population came to be called Black Vlachs, Mauro-Vlachs and
    in English Morlaks. The epithet "black" was attached to the
    Vlachs, so Jirećek thinks (cf. _Bulletino di Archeologia
    Dalmata_, Split, 1879), on account of the hordes of Black
    Tartars who until the beginning of the fourteenth century
    infested the plains of Moldavia. Gradually in this hinterland
    population the Roman and the Vlach died out, but the latter's
    name was retained. It had lost its ethnic meaning and among
    the Ragusan poets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
    the word was used to signify a shepherd. The Venetians
    employed the word Morlacchi as a term of mockery, because it
    indicated people of the mountains, backward people. And this
    derogatory connotation has clung to it, so that to-day the
    Morlaks, who after all are Croats and Serbs, do not like to
    be called by that name.]

    [Footnote 22: The Serbian Archbishopric of Peć, which Dušan
    at his coronation had raised to the Patriarchate, was for the
    time being left intact.]

    [Footnote 23: This is a Pomak song. The Pomaks are the
    descendants of those who in the seventeenth century (perhaps
    also earlier) were forcibly converted to Islam. Their
    folk-songs, customs and language are Bulgarian. They speak
    the purest Bulgarian, save that the men count with Turkish
    numerals. (The women, who can count up to 100, use the
    Bulgarian language.) The Pomaks live for the most part in the
    Rhodope Mountains and in the Lovac district of northern
    Bulgaria. They are endowed, as a rule, with meagre
    intelligence, so that the educational endeavours of the
    Bulgarian Government had perforce to be abandoned, since very
    few of these reluctant pupils ever left the lowest class. The
    most exalted situation they aspire to is to serve as clerks
    to Muhammedan priests. Nevertheless, they despise the Turks
    and call their language the language of pigs.]

    [Footnote 24: To-day in Serbia when the King addresses his
    people, when the deputies address the Parliament, the mayor
    his fellow-citizens, the priest his parishioners, the officer
    his men--all of them begin with the words "Moja bratčo!" ["My
    brothers!"]]

    [Footnote 25: Cf. _Baranja multja es jelenje_, 2 vols., by
    Francis Varady. Pecuj, 1898.]

    [Footnote 26: _Die südslavischen Literaturen._ Leipzig,
    1908.]

    [Footnote 27: Cf. _Le Balkan Slave_, by Charles Loiseau.
    Paris, 1898.]

    [Footnote 28: _La Dalmazia._ Florence, 1915.]

    [Footnote 29: There is in the museum at Eger in
    Czecho-Slovakia a small painting of Branković dated 1711. It
    depicts him standing pensively outside a tent, clad in a red
    and yellow Turkish costume and with a beard that reaches to
    his knees. On the other hand, it seems to be established that
    he was an ordinary inmate of the prison, whose site is now
    occupied by the Café Astoria; and one's faith in the accuracy
    of the Eger Museum is rather dimmed by the exhibition of a
    number of pictures, each of them purporting to give the
    authentic details of the assassination at Eger of the great
    Wallenstein, and every picture is quite different from the
    others.]

    [Footnote 30: _Macedonia._ London, 1906.]

    [Footnote 31: This was far too sweeping a statement. Only
    thirty or forty Orthodox at Prizren--teachers, merchants and
    others--used to dress in European raiment (with a fez), but
    from of old the Serbs had a teachers' institute and a
    seminary--the young men educated there frequently went to
    Montenegro. And in view of what happened a few years later,
    Miss Edith Durham must regret that in her book _High Albania_
    (London, 1909) she did not confine herself to recording of
    the men of Prizren that "of one thing the population is
    determined: that is, that never again shall the land be
    Serb"; but she adds, on her own account, that in this
    picturesque town and its neighbourhood the Serbs are engaged
    in a forlorn hope and that their claims are no better than
    those of the English on Normandy. Yet if, in her opinion, the
    Serbs have been rewarded beyond their deserts, she must
    acknowledge that they are not wholly undeserving--in the days
    of her cherished Albanians it was necessary for a Catholic
    inhabitant to furnish himself with a loaded revolver before
    guiding her through the streets of Djakovica.]

    [Footnote 32: Cf. _Les Albanais en Vieille-Serbie et dans le
    Sandjak de Novi-Bazar_. Paris, 1913.]

    [Footnote 33: He worked for a long time at the monastery of
    Hopovo, among the Syrmian hills, and there his collection of
    books, in the two rooms just as he left them, was naturally
    treasured. Half of them were stolen in the course of this
    last war by the Austrians.]

    [Footnote 34: _Geschichte der Franzfelder Gemeinde._ Pančevo,
    1893.]

    [Footnote 35: This was originally as much land as a yoke of
    oxen could plough in a day. Until the introduction of the
    French metrical system this measurement was used in Austria.
    It still survives there, a "joch" or yoke being equivalent to
    5754·6 square metres, or about 1·4 English acres. The
    Hungarian joch is three-quarters the size of this.]




III

BUILDING THE FOUNDATIONS: NAPOLEON AND STROSSMAYER

SLAVS WEEP FOR THE FALL OF VENICE--THEY HEAR THE VOICE OF THEIR
BROTHERS--MEASURES TO KEEP THEM APART--BY ENCOURAGING THE ITALIANIZED
PARTY--AND THE ORTHODOX CHURCH--AND BY FATHERLY LEGISLATION--IN SERBIA
THE PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM--THE MONTENEGRIN AUTHORITIES ARE
OTHERWISE ENGAGED--NAPOLEON FAVOURS THE SOUTHERN SLAVS--RUSSIA AND
BRITAIN OPPOSE HIM ON THE ADRIATIC--ILLYRIA, NAPOLEON'S GREAT WORK FOR
THE SOUTHERN SLAVS--NAPOLEON'S SCHEMES ARE ROUGHLY INTERRUPTED--THE
MONTENEGRIN BISHOP INCITES AGAINST HIM--DISASTER FOR NAPOLEON AND THE
SOUTHERN SLAVS--AUSTRIA'S REPRESSIVE POLICY--THE WORK OF VUK
KARAŽIĆ--THE METHODS OF SERBIA'S MILOŠ--THE SLAV SOUL OF
CROATIA--THE MAGYARS AND CROATIA'S PORT--THE SULTAN REIGNS IN
BOSNIA--A SORRY PERIOD FOR THE SOUTHERN SLAVS--SOME WHO TURN FROM
POLITICS GROW PROSPEROUS--BUT THE CROATS STRIVE FOR POLITICAL
LIBERTIES--THE AUSTRIANS, THE MAGYARS AND THE CROATS--THE CROATS,
STRUGGLING FOR FREEDOM, INCIDENTALLY HELP AUSTRIA--HOW MONTENEGRO
REFORMED HERSELF--THE PRINCE-BISHOP GIVES A LEAD TO THE SOUTHERN
SLAVS--AUSTRIA POURS OUT A GERMAN FLOOD--THE CROAT PEASANTS AND THEIR
CLERGY--WHAT THE CZECHS ARE DOING TO-DAY--STROSSMAYER--THE TURK IN
MONTENEGRO AND MACEDONIA--THE CHEERLESS STATE OF SERBIA--THE SLAV
VOICE IN MACEDONIA--THE MACEDONIAN SLAVS ARE UNDIVIDED--DAWN OF
ITALIAN UNITY--HOW CAVOUR WOULD HAVE TREATED THE SLAVS--ITALIAN _V._
SLAV: TOMMASEO'S ADVICE--AUSTRIA LEANS ON GERMANS AND ITALIANISTS--THE
SOUTHERN SLAV HOPES ARE CENTRED ON CETINJE--FOR THEY KNOW NEITHER
NICHOLAS OF MONTENEGRO NOR MICHAEL OF SERBIA--IF MICHAEL HAD
LIVED!--THE STRANGE CAREER OF RAKOVSKI--THE YUGOSLAV NAME--RUSSIA AND
AUSTRIA SOW DISCORD IN THE BALKANS--THE MACEDONIAN SLAVS UNDER THEIR
GREEK CLERGY--THE AFFAIR OF KUKUŠ--THE EXARCHATE IS
ESTABLISHED--1867: AUSTRIA DELIVERS THE SLAVS TO THE MAGYARS--THE
"KRPITSA"--RIEKA'S HISTORY, AS TWO PEOPLE SEE IT--AND THE SLOVENES ARE
COERCED.


SLAVS WEEP FOR THE FALL OF VENICE

Early in 1797 the weak French garrisons which had been left in certain
towns of Italy were massacred by the Venetians, who displayed no
mercy either to the wounded soldiers or the women who were with the
troops. Napoleon would come back no more, thought the Venetians. But
he heard of what had happened as he was engaged upon the clauses of
the Treaty of Leoben. No sooner had that courier brought him the
dispatches than the Venetian envoys were ushered into his presence.
They had been entrusted by the Senate with the task of following the
armies and congratulating Napoleon or the Archduke, according to which
of them had won the last battle. These envoys may have taken a
despondent view of what would be the fate of the Serene Republic; but
when, a short time afterwards, the perfumed and dishevelled citizens,
stamping on the masks of last night's ball, were weeping pitiably in
their palaces, the Slovenes and the Morlaks, who had fought for them
so well, were weeping in the streets. Sadly and solemnly at Zadar--_la
tanto disputata_--the flag of Venice was lowered; at other parts of
the Dalmatian coast the nobles scarcely had to say a word before the
peasants had snatched arms to fight the French and their _égalité_.
The Venetians had, after all, been there a long time, even if they had
not risen to the heights of Dubrovnik, which, as we learn from a
traveller in 1805, kept no secret police and no gendarmes, and where a
capital sentence pronounced at the time was the first in twenty-five
years. (The city went into mourning on account of this, and an
executioner had to be imported from Turkey.) Such a moral height had
not been reached by the Venetians; but they had been in Dalmatia, as
people loved to repeat, for a long time, and they had been easy-going
in the collection of taxes, they had supported the bishops and the
holy Church, they had made the peasants feel that each one of them was
helping to support Venice, the grand and ancient, and so the faithful
people mourned when she was falling.


THEY HEAR THE VOICE OF THEIR BROTHERS

Yet they were not wholly deaf to the call of their own race. When the
Austrians sent a general, the "Hungarian party," working against the
civil government of Count Raymond von Thurn, managed to have the post
given to General Rukavina, a Croat from the Military Frontier. An
eye-witness has left us an account of Rukavina's reception at Trogir.
The general mounted a chair, and asked the people in the Slav language
whether they would swear the oath of fidelity to His Majesty the
Emperor and King, Francis II., and his descendants and legal
successors. "Otchemo!" ["That is what we want!"] was the unanimous
reply. After the swearing of the oath, the general suddenly began a
vigorous speech: "Moi dragi Dalmatinci" ["My dear Dalmatians"], said
he.... And afterwards, when two companies of Croat infantry were
disembarked, the people collected round them were astonished to hear
them speaking the same language as themselves and to learn that many
of them had the same names as the Dalmatians.[36]

Incidents of this character were, for more reasons than one, most
galling to von Thurn. In July the archbishop and municipality of Split
petitioned that they might belong to Hungary. One presumes that these
officials were moved less by the sympathetic ways of one Hungarian
than by the knowledge that Croatia was under the Hungarian crown. Very
powerless, indeed, like themselves, Croatia might be--at that moment
reduced to the rank of a Hungarian county, with her Ban no longer able
to convoke the Diet--nevertheless, a Croatia still existed. Then Count
Raymond took hold of the matter; he sent reports on Rukavina to the
Viennese authorities, and he and they seem to have cared little
whether these reports contradicted one another. He exhibited his
adversary as a man of unbounded violence, as a man of the most
pusillanimous nature; General Rukavina was despicable, said these
documents, he was an absolute nonentity; but no, shrieked von Thurn on
the next day, this man Rukavina was imbued as no other with the
abominable spirit of Machiavelli. To bring about the fall of the
Hungarian party in Dalmatia, Count Raymond's police set themselves the
task of laying by the heels such Hungarian agents as Count Miaslas
Zanović, one of the four sons of Count Anthony, who for being
implicated in a more than usually flagrant scandal had been expelled
from Venice. And his sons lived agitated lives, although it is untrue
that the second one, Stephen, before dying in prison in Amsterdam, had
governed Montenegro and is known to history as Stephen the Little.
[That mysterious person was a contemporary, who appearing in
Montenegro when the land was in a state of barbarism and destitution,
gave it out that he was the Russian Tzar Peter III., who had been
strangled to death in 1762. The Montenegrins accepted him; and from
1768 to 1773 he showed himself a most competent and zealous ruler,
carrying out so many reforms that he was clearly not Peter III. It has
not as yet been ascertained from where he came, but judging from his
accent he was either a Dalmatian Serb or a native of the Military
Confines. He was very taciturn; only one Montenegrin, a priest called
Marković, is believed to have been privy to his secret. Marković
had visited Russia ten years previously and had celebrated Mass in the
presence of the Tzar. It was the priest who assured the mountaineers
that Stephen really was the Tzar. During his reign he repulsed the
Turks and organized the public security, so that a lost purse--the
people said--could easily be recovered. The Republic of Venice tried
on several occasions to poison this excellent ruler; he was ultimately
killed by a barber who came up to Cetinje at the bidding of the Pasha
of Scutari, and, being appointed court barber, cut Stephen's throat.]
As for the Zanović, the elder brother, Count Premislas, was for a
long time in a Finnish prison, on account of his conduct in
gaming-houses; the two younger brothers, Hannibal and Miaslas, were in
Budva in southern Dalmatia in 1797, distributing Venetian
proclamations, after which they rearranged their minds and became
Hungarian agents.


MEASURES TO KEEP THEM APART

The more active of the pair was Miaslas, and by confounding his
machinations and those of other Hungarian adherents von Thurn
overthrew the Hungaro-Croatian party. Thenceforward his greatest care
was diligently to suppress those aspirations of the people of Dalmatia
for a union with their brothers. He had to build the house with the
materials that he found on the spot; the most obvious corner-stone was
that numerically small body of nobles and merchants who had for so
long associated with Venetian officials that they hated to confess
that they were Slavs.


BY ENCOURAGING THE ITALIANIZED PARTY

A minute number of this small body consisted of real Italians, people
who very exceptionally had settled in Dalmatia; but among these rare
families there was not any single one of that extensive class in
Venice which had been presented by their Government with vast domains,
with farms and forests in Dalmatia. Well, the Count of Thurn observed
that this small body of Italianized Slavs would probably not help him
very much, for the Italian culture and the education which they were
so proud of were--it is not unjust to say--nearly always superficial
and not such as to compensate for this party's lack of numbers. But
yet, for what they were worth, he supported them. No doubt the project
which the Archduke Charles evolved in 1880, to transplant
German-Austrians to Dalmatia, would have been preferred by von Thurn.
"These colonists," explained the Archduke, "by their culture and
laboriousness, by their devotion to the House of Habsburg would give
to the Dalmatians a most valuable example and would soon persuade them
thoroughly to merge themselves among the mass of peoples faithful to
the Emperor." But this plan could not be carried through, because the
people of Dalmatia would have risen in revolt; moreover, the most
fertile regions had been so neglected that too many of them were now
marshes or through other causes uninhabitable. Thus von Thurn assisted
the Italianized party; they would, at any rate, unlike the other
Serbo-Croats of Dalmatia, not strive for union with anybody else.
Before the French Revolution no one in Italy dreamed that it would be
possible to bring about Italian unity, and the patriots of 1848 longed
only for the liberation of their Peninsula; they spoke of Triest as
"the port of the future Slavia" or as "a neutral zone, a transitional
region between Slavia and Italy."


AND THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

It may be that when von Thurn also gratified a reasonable ambition of
the Orthodox Church he was moved by the idea that the Roman Catholic
Church of the Croats might thus to some extent be counteracted; he
may, on the other hand, have been impelled by altruistic motives when
he authorized the establishment of an Orthodox bishopric. Under Venice
the Church had not been recognized; and after having several times
almost succeeded in obtaining their bishop, a _modus vivendi_ was at
last reached in 1797, with the consent of the Senate and perhaps of
Rome. Under this arrangement the Orthodox were free to profess their
religion, but the Senate officially ignored their separation from the
Roman Church; their priests had to obtain their rights from the
Catholic bishops and allow the Catholic priests to cull certain of
their legitimate revenues. And this, although the Orthodox formed
one-half of the dioceses of Scardona and Šibenik, and two-thirds of
that of Bocche di Cattaro. They were not more backward than the rest
of the population. Von Thurn--who, they thought, knew nothing of the
circumstances--was informed by them that the see of Dalmatia was
vacant and that they had elected the Archmandrite Simeon Ivcović, a
man universally esteemed for his prudence and wisdom. They begged von
Thurn to confirm this election, and he did so.


AND BY FATHERLY LEGISLATION

But von Thurn seems to have relied largely on the gratitude which this
neglected province would feel for the introduction of Austrian
improvements. The happy-go-lucky Venetian methods were no longer to
disfigure the country. Those people were logical indeed who did not
care for a government which did not care for them. No such reproach
should be levelled against the Austrian Government, if he could avoid
it; for in Dalmatia it would now be by the side of its new subjects
from their getting up in the morning until they lay them down at
night. Henceforward there would be a set of reasonable rules for
everything, and if anyone remarked that this was too much in the
spirit of the late Joseph II. who made the Kingdom of Prussia his
model--what more excellent model could one imagine? Those people who
had hitherto been troubled in their minds because they did not know
how many flower-pots they might instal outside their windows, to those
people it would be a boon to have a new list of detailed and complete
regulations as to every aspect of this matter. People who had until
now been nervous lest they would be punished if they started lotteries
at Zadar, all these people would be glad to know that lotteries were
legal if each person who manipulated one paid for the upkeep of a
hundred lanterns in the streets. People had been bastinadoed in the
past, not knowing if they would be smitten hard or gently; but the
Austrian Government was far too civilized to leave such matters in the
hands of chance. With regard to those who persisted in public smoking,
von Thurn probably borrowed the rules which Baron Codelli, the mayor
of Ljubljana, was elaborating at this time. "In the streets of the
town and the suburbs," says the Baron, "smoking has become of late a
general practice. The pleasure of smoking tobacco, which its partisans
can sufficiently enjoy in their abodes, by the river and in the
fields, makes them forget what is seemly, and, moreover, they
disregard the peril that may arise from conflagrations, especially
when their pipes are not shut. Several fires, due to this
pipe-smoking, which is contrary to the police regulations, have not
sufficed to lead the culprits back to the respect and precaution which
they should preserve for the goods and property of their
fellow-citizens. To satisfy the general well-being and to satisfy the
police with regard to fires, it is forbidden to smoke tobacco, and
especially cigars, in the streets and squares of this town and the
suburbs, with the penalty of losing the pipe if a police-agent catches
anyone with it in his mouth, and in the case of a repeated offence the
penalty will be more serious."


IN SERBIA THE PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM

This system of tutelage may have had its irksome moments; the Turkish
rule in Serbia was such that any people with blood in their veins
were bound to rebel. Sooner or later a race like the Serbs, who lived
always with the songs of their old heroes and who gloried in their
heiduks, were sure to dash themselves against this alien master. Kara
George had seen that the Serbs in the Banat were prosperous, while in
Serbia they were obliged to stand and watch the janissaries come back
to the pashalik of Belgrade, though the Turks had sworn this should
not be. Then the match was set to the fire--in January 1804 the Da-Hi,
the chiefs of the janissaries, after having slain Mustapha Pasha, the
enlightened Turkish Governor, who was known affectionately as "the
mother of the Serbs," cut off the heads of a number of Serbian
leaders; seventy-two of them on pikes were made into an awful avenue
of trees. But even as the snowstorms beat against these Serbian heads,
so Kara George and his companions from Šumadija, the heart of
Serbia, flung themselves against the janissaries and vanquished them.
This was what the Serbs had started out to do, and so for the moment
Constantinople had been content to look on. However, when the Sultan
was told that his unruly vassals had seized the whole of Šumadija
and the departments of Valjevo and Pojarevac, he sent against them the
Pasha of Bosnia, who demanded that they should lay down their arms.
But now the Serbs had seen what some day they might struggle to--the
liberation of their country. They had climbed a few steps up the stony
path, they would not let themselves be lured back to the plain. Let
Austria or some other one of the Great Powers guarantee their rights.
The Pasha would not hear of it, and so these few undaunted men
resolved to fight the Turkish Empire. An army came at once to stamp
them out, and at Ivancovac they scattered it. From now they would
fight on alone.[37] Their leader was the sort of man they wanted, a
brave heiduk who was never weary, who had taken up one day a large
rock and had flung it down a precipice, and who would do the same,
they fancied, to a follower of his, if he saw fit.... The Serbs were
left to fight alone, but the Great Powers took an interest in their
future. We find in a report from the French Ambassador in Petrograd to
his Minister of Foreign Affairs (No. 261 in the "Excerpts from the
Paris Archives relating to the history of the first Serbian
Insurrection," collected [Belgrade, 1904] by Dr. Michael
Gavrilović, now the Minister in London) that the treaty of alliance
stipulated for Russia to have Moldavia, Bessarabia, Vallachia and
Bulgaria; France to have Albania, part of Bosnia, Morea and Candia;
Austria to have Croatia and part of Bosnia; while Serbia was to be
independent and given to a prince of the House of Austria or to any
other foreign prince who married a Russian Grand Duchess. According to
another scheme which the Ambassador forwarded, Austria was to have
Serbia in complete possession as an Austrian province, and Croatia to
belong to Austria or France, as Napoleon might decide.... Serbia had
to fight alone, and unluckily her ranks were anything but closed. The
lack of education brought about some childish jealousies, such as that
of Mladen Milanović, who was ordered by Kara George to go to the
relief of the Heiduk Veliko at Negotin, where 18,000 Turks were
besieging him. "He may help himself!" quoth Mladen. "_His_ praise is
sung to him at his table by ten singers, _mine_ is not. Let him hold
out by himself, the _hero_." Veliko sent word to say that at the New
Year (when Kara George and his chieftains were wont to meet in
consultation) he would inquire as to how the country was being
governed. But before then he was dead--shot by the Turks, who
recognized him while he was going the rounds; and after five days his
troops, in despair, made their escape across a morass and scattered.


THE MONTENEGRIN AUTHORITIES ARE OTHERWISE ENGAGED

There was no use in looking to the Montenegrin mountains, for that
rallying-point of all the Serbs was in the midst of very delicate
business. One year before the rising of Kara George, in 1803, the
Montenegrin warriors had profited from the fact that they were
fighting nobody and they had made a few reforms in their own country.
The Bishop, Peter I., convoked an assembly at which the tribal chiefs
approved of a Code and of the imposition of a tax, for State
requirements. It was also decided to have a court of justice, the
members of which should be elected by the people. Thus it will be seen
that the patriarchal system still prevailed, and though the Bishop was
regarded by the outside world--by the Turk whom with varying fortunes
he was perpetually fighting, and by the Russian Tzar, whom he had
visited at intervals from the time when Peter the Great called on the
Montenegrins in 1711 to work with him in rescuing, if it was God's
will, those Orthodox Christians who were oppressed by the yoke of the
heathen--though the Bishop was regarded both by friend and foe as the
sovereign of Montenegro, yet it was only round him that the tribal
chiefs gathered as being the guardian of their religion, while the
people, represented by their tribal chiefs, remained the real
sovereign. If Kara George had risen one year earlier they would have
flown immediately to help him--as, indeed, they did help him at a
later period--they would have postponed, without a moment's
hesitation, the establishing of Code and tax and court of justice. But
in 1804 they found themselves in a most awkward situation. Since the
death of the Tzar Paul the Russians had appeared to be indifferent to
Montenegro, and for three years the annual subsidy of a thousand
sequins had not been paid. This omission was made use of by the French
Consul at Dubrovnik, who with the aid of a Dubrovnik priest, one
Dolci, set himself to wean the Montenegrins from their Russian
friendship. Fonton, Russia's Consul at Dubrovnik, demanded the
sequestration and the scrutiny of Dolci's papers; the demand was
rejected, and when force was tried Dolci leaped at the examiner's
throat. It was proved that he was in the pay of France and the
Montenegrins were obliged to disavow him. This exasperated the Bishop,
who threatened to cut off Dolci's ears, but relented and only gave him
a hundred blows with a stick and ordered him to be imprisoned in a
monastery. The second half of Dolci's punishment was thought by many
at the time to be unwise, as he might talk. And they were gladdened
when they heard, soon afterwards, of his decease, though whether they
were right in praising their bishop for this consummation we do not
know. At all events, the hapless Dolci had not lived in vain, for
Russia now resumed her good relations with the mountaineers, and she
inaugurated them by paying the three thousand sequins.

The Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 allotted Dalmatia to Napoleon. A few
months afterwards his armies landed on the coast. Although the high
command and certain regiments were French, a large part of the force
consisted of Italians, Germans, Spaniards and Dutchmen. The scheme
Napoleon entertained was to secure for himself the gates of the
Balkans and Albania, incidentally to take the Ionian Islands in the
rear, with the great purpose of securing the roads to Constantinople;
thence to India.


NAPOLEON FAVOURS THE SOUTHERN SLAVS

The provinces of Dalmatia and Istria were placed under the government
of Milan, in their towns were hoisted the Italian colours; but if to
Napoleon these lands were chiefly stepping-stones to India, he did not
long stay in ignorance regarding their inhabitants. His
representative, Vincenzo Dandolo, was a Venetian who, on account of
his democratic principles, had been expelled in 1799 and had sought
refuge in France. We will therefore not repeat the epithets he uses
when he writes about the late Venetian overseas régime. But Napoleon
had no cause to be prejudiced in favour of the Yugoslavs. His origin
was Italian. His daughter reigned in Italy. And if he had disapproved
of Dandolo starting at Zadar in 1806 an official newspaper--the _Regio
dalmato: Kraljski dalmatin_, written partly in Italian, partly in
Serbo-Croat--he would very soon have stopped the paper and Dandolo's
career. But, on the contrary, this paper (the first one to be written
at all in Serbo-Croat) was followed by the planning of secondary
schools at Zadar, Šibenik, Trogir, Split, Makarska and the island
of Hvar, twenty-nine elementary schools for boys and fourteen for
girls, two academies at Zadar and Split, four seminaries for the
education of priests and eight industrial schools. And in these the
Serbo-Croatian language was to be largely employed.

Kara George had no leisure in which to learn to read and write.
Another Turkish army, formed in Bosnia, had to be encountered near
Šabac in 1806. It was routed, and on this occasion the Serbian
cavalry was led with great distinction by a priest, Luka Lazarević.
Yet another Turkish army suffered the same fate.


RUSSIA AND BRITAIN OPPOSE HIM ON THE ADRIATIC

It was not to be thought that France would be left tranquil on the
Adriatic. Russia did not incommode her very greatly. After Kotor
(Cattaro) had been delivered to the Muscovites by an Italian, the
Marquis Ghislieri (who had concealed until that moment his antagonism
to the French for having been removed by them from his Bologna home),
the Russians made themselves obnoxious to a small extent upon the
islands. They summoned the people of Hvar to recognize the Tzar as
their overlord, and when the people declined to do so, the Russians
bombarded them. For Dubrovnik this conflict between Russia and France
was embarrassing; she wrote to Sankovski, the Russian Commissary, that
if he exceeded his powers she would have recourse to the Tzar, "her
beloved protector." But when in the summer of that year, 1806, she was
besieged for twenty days, the French were in occupation of the town,
while the Russians with their Montenegrin friends were trying to
dislodge them. It is said that before the garrison was relieved, by
the arrival of another French force, there had been so much damage
done to the Republic's ancient walls and palaces and other buildings
that the loss, to mention only the pecuniary loss, amounted to
eighteen million francs. After the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 the
British undertook, and more effectively, those operations in the
Adriatic which the Russians now abandoned. They tried to burn at
Triest the Russian vessels which had been ceded to France, and for a
few years they had command of the Adriatic, keeping sometimes as many
as twenty-two ships in those waters, while the French are said to have
had at no time more than seven frigates.

The old Republic was dissolved; but many other questions weighed upon
Napoleon. It was the Austrian Emperor and not he whom many people in
Dalmatia held to be their lawful monarch, for the Habsburg was the
heir of the Croatian Kings. And so while England had the sea in her
possession, Austria had the salt-lands of the isle of Pago, and the
populace on the Quarnero Islands took the rudders off the boats which
were to carry food to Zadar. The Austrians advanced on Split, with
ordinary troops and volunteers. At Hvar the people kept Napoleon's
birthday with apparent enthusiasm; on the next day they revolted and
hoisted the Austrian flag. Then the peasants seized the town and for
three days indulged in pillage, burning amongst other things the
valuable libraries of those who favoured France.


ILLYRIA, NAPOLEON'S GREAT WORK FOR THE SOUTHERN SLAVS

With the Treaty of Schoenbrunn Napoleon secured possession of
Carniola, the Austrian part of Istria, Croatia, the military frontiers
from the Save to the sea, and also certain districts of Carinthia,
Styria and Tirol. Now at last the Adriatic littoral, with large tracts
of the interior, was united under one hand. We may note that Eugène
Beauharnais in vain entreated that the frontier for the Slovenes
should, on account of strategic necessities, be drawn to the east of
the Isonzo, but Napoleon did not hesitate to make that river the
boundary between the two countries, as it was between the two races.
Mazzini in 1860 shared this opinion, which he had also maintained in
1831, in his book _The Rights of Man_, that Slavs and Italians should
be divided by this river. And in 1860 Cavour expressed himself to the
same effect in a letter to Laurent Valerio.

"Mes braves Croates," says Napoleon in his Memoirs; and for what he
did in this Illyria, the forerunner of our Yugoslavia, they must be
always thankful. Never had these people had such able administrators,
such sympathetic governors. They governed it too much as if it were a
part of France, but they were doing their utmost to understand the
people and their customs. General Marmont acquired an excellent
knowledge of the Serbo-Croat language; he intended to introduce the
national tongue into all the public offices. But this naturally could
not be carried through without an intervening period, and unluckily
Marmont so far excelled his compatriots as a linguist, that when the
newspaper _Télégraphe officiel des Provinces Illyriennes_ appeared at
Ljubljana, the capital (under the brilliant editorship of Charles
Nodier, who came out from France for that purpose), and it was
announced that there would be French, German, Italian and Slav
articles, the latter do not appear to have been published. Illyria was
under the influence of its neighbours, Italian, German and Hungarian,
with regard to the spoken and still more with regard to the written
language. A fundamental necessity was that the country should have one
common language. Under French influence Joachim Stulli brought out his
_Vocabulario italiano-illyrico-latino_ in 1810, and at Triest in 1812
Starčević published his new Illyrian grammar. There was visible
in these works an aspiration that some day the Yugoslavs would be
united in one country and with various dialects, and the proviso that
for public affairs and for schools and literature the so-called
"Što" dialect, the most widely spread and the most perfect, should
be given preference. If Napoleon had not fallen, his Illyria would no
doubt have gradually attracted to herself the other Yugoslav provinces
that still were under the Austrian, Hungarian or Turk; and in this way
one of the great thorns would have been taken out of Europe's side.
There was an official, Marcel de Serres, on Napoleon's staff, who was
exclusively concerned with Yugoslav affairs; and it is probable that
with a closer knowledge of the people there would have been less
insistence on the radical reforms which were sometimes ill-adapted to
the country and were often hated vehemently by the persons whom they
shook out of their age-long comatose condition. Napoleon would have
modified the methods of recruiting had he known how much resentment
his conscription was arousing. Venice had obtained most faithful
soldiers; this was one of the few trades that she permitted, but she
had never said they were obliged to serve. Napoleon's system caused
great numbers of desertions, while the men who stayed had little
discipline and looked for opportunities to join the enemy. Perhaps in
time the nobles would have been resigned to losing, if not all, at any
rate a portion of their privileges; and the Catholic clergy would have
moderated their strong views against the gaoler of Pius VII., the
champion of liberal and emancipated France, the master of Dandolo, who
wanted to reduce the number of bishoprics, oblige candidates for the
priesthood to learn certain lay subjects and regulate the funds in the
possession of the Orders, with the purpose of assisting the indigent
clergy and benevolent institutions--much would have been forgiven by
the clergy to the man who brought about national union.


NAPOLEON'S SCHEMES ARE ROUGHLY INTERRUPTED

The transactions of the British at Vis (Lissa) were such as to make
the people of Illyria very discontented with Napoleon, not so much on
account of his mischance at sea, as of the disagreeable effects
thereof upon themselves. The British blockade had ruined the local
merchant service, while the consequent state of a province which had
necessarily to be revictualled by sea was compared with the
flourishing fortunes of Vis. Before the British definitely occupied
that island with its glorious harbour--2½ kilometres in length by 1
kilometre in breadth--they had to secure themselves by two naval
engagements. In October 1810 the French-Italian attack was nearly
successful, and in the following March came the great fight when
Dubourdieu pitted himself against Commodore Hoste. Not counting a few
smaller ships, the French had four frigates, each armed with 44 guns,
and two corvettes of 32 guns. The British had the _Amphion_ and the
_Cerberus_, each armed with 60 guns, the _Active_ with 44 and the
_Volage_ with 22. The Italians having slow ships, arrived late, but
fought very well. What lost Dubourdieu his chances was the separation
of his squadron, which allowed the British to engage them one after
another. Dubourdieu on the _Favorite_, his captain and two lieutenants
were killed; the captain of the _Flore_ lost an arm; the captain of
the _Bellona_ had both legs amputated, and died on the next day;
Pasqualijo, captain of the _Corona_, wished to surrender his sword to
Hoste, but as he had fought so nobly Hoste refused to take it.
Pasqualijo was removed to Malta, and after a few months set at
liberty. On the British side the losses were also severe. Most of the
crew of the _Amphion_ were either killed or wounded, Hoste being among
the latter. Of 254 on board the _Cerberus_ only 26 were untouched. It
is said that the French and Italians had about 200 killed and 500
wounded. Dubourdieu's fault was merely an excess of intrepidity; the
French have called a cruiser after him. Their opinion at the time,
according to their historians,[38] was that the British were superior
in officers and men and ships--constant cruising on the Adriatic had
brought them near perfection. Among the incidents recorded is that of
one of the _Amphion's_ cadets who was doing police work at the fort;
in despair at being out of the battle he swam to his ship. A fusillade
from the _Favorite_ put some shot in his leg. On reaching the
_Amphion_ he was bandaged and went to his post. His name was Farell or
Farewell.... After this the British made themselves at home upon that
mountainous, rich isle of palm-trees and vineyards that were praised
of old by Agatharchides. Sir G. D. Robertson, the Governor, had two
companies of the 35th Regiment, besides Swiss, Corsican and Calabrian
contingents. There was great prosperity. Sometimes a hundred corsairs
would be in the harbour, waiting for a favourable wind. On their
return they would have splendid cargoes, and the goods which cost so
little were sold at absurd prices. Rent was high, there were not shops
enough for the tailors, carpenters, goldsmiths, pastry-cooks who
landed there, chiefly from Italy; the people therefore pulled old
boats on to the shore and lived in them. There one could buy the best
Turkish tobacco, and cigars were advertised as "the finest cigars for
gentlemen and ladies." Italian and Dalmatian smugglers flocked to Vis
in search of goods, and even French officers could sometimes not
resist wearing the cool garments from the East Indies. In two years
the population increased from four to eleven thousand.

Illyria's enemies on land were also aided by the British. In 1813,
when the Austrians, under General Tomassich, penetrated into the
Illyrian provinces, the Croat inhabitants threw in their lot with
them. They and the British surrounded Zadar, which fell after a siege
of six weeks. At Dubrovnik--whose merchantmen she had mostly captured
or sunk--England assisted the population, nobles and commoners, in a
revolt against the French. One object of the citizens was to restore
the Republic, but in a democratic form.


THE MONTENEGRIN BISHOP INCITES AGAINST HIM

However, in the first days of 1814 the Austrians arrived and the
French, in their reduced condition, could hold out no longer. 1813 had
been a fatal year for Napoleon. The Montenegrin Bishop had addressed a
stirring appeal to the Bocchesi and others in September. "Slavs!" he
wrote. "Glorious and illustrious population of the Bocche di Cattaro,
of Dubrovnik and Dalmatia! Behold the moment to seize arms against the
destroyer of Europe, the universal foe who has attacked your religion,
ruined your churches.... He has put his taxes on the blood of your
veins and even on the corpses of your parents! What injustices has he
not committed?... Behold the hour of vengeance.... Croatia is
delivered, and Carniola, Triest, Istria, Rieka and Zengg. What else do
you wait for, O valiant Slavs of Dalmatia, of Dubrovnik and of Kotor?
By land the army of the Emperor of Austria, by sea that of the King of
England enter Dalmatia. They have taken Zadar and have arrived at
Makarska." ... [The Austrians, as a matter of fact, entered Dalmatia a
month after this proclamation was issued. The Bishop has allowed the
prophet in him to prevail over the chronicler.] "I am there," he
continues, "with my Montenegrins, ready to go where peril has to be
faced. The glory of the traitor Bonaparte has remained at Moscow and
Smolensk: no longer need we tremble before the Tyrant....

"Given at our Headquarters at Budva, 12/24 September 1813.

PETER, Bishop."


DISASTER FOR NAPOLEON AND THE SOUTHERN SLAVS

1813 was a fatal year for Napoleon and for this first attempt to build
a Yugoslavia. It was a fatal year for the first effort to construct
again a Serbian State. Burning with the hope of liberation, no less
than four Serbian armies had assembled and advanced victoriously
against the Turk. One of the most outstanding episodes was the heroic
death of Stephen Sindjelinić at Tšegar, near to Niš. As he
was in a hopeless case, no reinforcements having come, he told his men
that they must die, but as the Turks outnumbered them so more of these
must perish than of Christians. He waited till the Turks pressed
closely round him and then fired the magazine. In vengeance for this
deed the Turks piled up a pyramid of Serbian soldiers' heads; they
called it Tchele-Koula (Tower of Skulls), and for many years it was at
Niš a veritable Turkish monument. King Milan built a wall around
it; afterwards it was removed. And so the Serbs continued their long
fight. It seemed to some of them that the authority of Kara George had
grown excessive. They convoked a national assembly, which decided to
set up a Ministry of six and a tribunal. Kara George was--in agreement
with his Ministers--to nominate the prefects of the various
departments. While the Serbs were settling these internal matters,
Russia made her peace in 1812 with Turkey. As for Serbia, it was
arranged that the new fortresses would be demolished and the towns be
occupied by Turkish garrisons. Thus all that Serbia had won, and at
the cost of so much blood, would now be stolen from her. Once again
did Kara George and his companions take the field, but this time they
were overpowered. Many fled to Hungary, among them Kara George, and
were imprisoned. Others stayed in Serbia, and of these a great many
were slaughtered by the Turks. They say that sixty were impaled on
each side of the road which enters Belgrade, among them priests and
monks, whose bodies were consumed by dogs.

But Illyria and Serbia lived as inspirations.

       *       *       *       *       *

Nearly thirty years after the Austrians came back to Illyria they, at
the request of the Sultan, forbade the use of that name, except as
one of their Emperor's string of titles. Turkish susceptibilities were
not ruffled if he chose to call himself King of Illyria. Was he not
also King of Jerusalem? There had been anxiety at Constantinople as to
the effect which the name of Napoleon's province was producing on the
Slavs of Bosnia. Considering the Austrian policy, this was not a
glittering diplomatic triumph for the Turks. Had they approached the
Austrians much earlier it is improbable that they would have been met
with any very strenuous refusal. In their own phrase, a phrase that
was used by Osman Pasha when he heard of the violent disputes between
the Russians and Roumanians as to which of them had been the first to
batter the defences down and take by storm the mighty Plevna--"Any
pig," said he, "can walk in at an open door."


AUSTRIA'S REPRESSIVE POLICY

Another item of Austria's policy which it would not have been
difficult to foretell was her refusal to countenance the union of
Dalmatia and Croatia. Von Thurn's idea of favouring the harmless
Italianized party was thought very admirable and was now once more put
into action. This party was very much concerned to keep its head above
water; the rising tide of nationalism and equality and of other
pernicious French notions made as much appeal to them as they did to
Metternich. What he stood out against, they also hated; for the
national spirit, fostered by the union of the two Slav provinces,
would swamp them. If Dalmatia, on the other hand, remained autonomous
they would be much more likely to survive. So they became autonomists.

A fair number of those who for economical or social reasons gave
themselves out as belonging to this little autonomous party were
unable to speak Italian, being less cultivated than many of those who
continued to be patriotic Serbo-Croats. But as Italian now became the
language of the schools and offices, of the law-courts and of public
life generally, these autonomous persons hastened to learn it.


THE WORK OF VUK KARAŽIĆ

But now we hear the steps of other Southern Slavs whose mission is to
call the people to their own language and to make the language worthy
of the people. With the encumbrances that in the centuries had so
disfigured it, the archaisms and the pseudo-classicisms, it would
never come to pass that one great Serbian nation would be formed. And
that is what Vuk Karažić, throughout his life, was aiming at.
While Miloš Obrenović in Serbia took up the arms which Kara
George had dropped, and used some others of his own, Vuk Karažić
was tramping with his wooden leg round Serbia and Montenegro,
Macedonia and Bulgaria, Syrmia and the Banat. He longs to find out
where his country lies and, having found his people, to use their own
language as the spoken and the written language of the nation. For
this purpose he had to reform the Cyrillic alphabet, as it contained,
like Russian and Bulgarian, letters that are not pronounced; and the
Serbian produced by him is a purely phonetic language. He had, of
course, his enemies, particularly in the clergy, who were the most
important class. What he was doing with the Palæo-Slav displeased them
hugely. Here was he trying to substitute what they called "a language
of ox-herds" for that one which had not alone a venerable tradition
but was the hall-mark of their superiority. A certain Dr. Hajić
wrote a monograph in which he demonstrated most emphatically that it
was the enviable happiness of the Serbian people to have no grammar.
It was hinted by some other opponents of Vuk that he might well be an
Austrian agent, who, in order to disturb the people, was now raising
questions of a most contentious nature, which had previously not been
thought of. But when the great philologist died in 1861 in Vienna he
had long been recognized as one of the most ardent patriots. His three
volumes of national songs excited the enthusiasm of Jacob Grimm, who
rushed off to learn this new language, and with essays and letters to
reveal it to Goethe. Translators, commentators, expounders and editors
flocked from all sides, and Vuk was regarded as Serbia incarnate.


THE METHODS OF SERBIA'S MILOŠ

One naturally judges a country of which one is ignorant by the little
which one knows about the private life of its ruler. And it was
fortunate for Serbia's reputation that Prince Miloš had a Vuk to throw
a shadow over him. Kara George had been a hero, Miloš called himself a
statesman. Anyhow, he walked in crooked paths, although the murders
that he was accused of are now said to be not proven--with the
exception of Archbishop Nikčić, one of his critics, and another
prominent man whom he requested the Pasha to have strangled. Kara
George--one finds in many books--was done away with when he came back
to renew the fight against the Turks; most people say that Miloš, his
arch-rival, had him murdered in his sleep. All that one knows for
certain is that the assassin was a man in the employ of one of Miloš's
prefects. As for Miloš sending the head to the Sultan, it is pointed
out that as the Sultan's vassal he could not do otherwise. But the
stories of his wife, the strong-minded Princess Liubica, are
acknowledged to be true--how she would cry out to the warriors, if
they seemed to waver, that they were but women, and how this induced
them to attack again; how she would cook her husband's meals and wait
on him; how when she discovered that any other lady had found favour
in the Prince's sight she slew her, and retired into the mountains
until her husband was appeased or had discovered a new lady. The court
etiquette of that period was under the baneful influence of Turkey.
Miloš used to live in Turkish houses--some of them are extant to this
day--he gave audience as a Turkish pasha, seated amid cushions on the
floor, his room was hung with captured Turkish flags, and on his head
he wore a turban. It was often rumoured that when he had gained
sufficient money he would not continue to forbid the working of the
Serbian salt-mines, lest the profits of his own mines in Roumania
should diminish; and it is not creditable that he should have made his
subjects pay their contributions to the Turkish Tribute in the
currency of Austria, while he would forward it in Turkish currency--of
course less valuable--and keep the difference. He also tried to
monopolize the swine trade, the most lucrative in the country; he
seized whatever he coveted--lands, mills and houses--and even burned
down a part of Belgrade in order to build a new Custom-House, whose
takings would flow into his pocket. "Am I not the chief," he said,
"the Gospodar, and shall I not do what I like with my own?" But he was
a real Prince. After the Peace of Adrianople in 1829 an edict was
issued by the Sultan, which recognized Serbia as an independent
principality, with Miloš as hereditary prince. He organized a standing
army and built roads and schools and churches. He abolished, in 1833,
the old Turkish system of land-tenure and introduced that peasant
proprietorship which causes the Serbs, down to this day, to go into
battle in defence of their own lands. In 1836 he offered the bishopric
of Šabac to the famous Bulgarian monk, Neophyte Rilski, who wrote the
first Bulgarian grammar and translated the New Testament, of which the
first edition was burned by the Greek Church at Constantinople, while
the second edition sold to the then enormous extent of 30,000 copies.
The modest monk, who was born in 1793 and died in 1881, preferred the
life of a student and teacher;[39] he therefore declined an offer
which was so creditable to him who made it.... Yet in spite of Miloš's
great services to his country he had his detractors. It was one of
them, perhaps, who painted the portrait that one usually sees of
him--an incongruous portrait, because the uniform is most correct--he
is holding in his hand the Serbian military headgear, not a
turban--but the face, with its serpent-like moustaches, high
cheek-bones and black eyes, looks more like that of a Tartar than
anything else. Those who did not care for Miloš said that it was
barbarism not to let the laws be put in writing; but to this he never
would consent. In 1835 he announced in the official Gazette (_Novine
Srpski_) that he was the "only master"; he set about gaining for his
country the interest of foreign Powers. England, which in 1837 sent
Colonel Hodges as her agent to Belgrade, was for having Serbia placed
under the protection of the Great Powers. Constitutional England was
backing Miloš and his despotism, while, on the other hand, Russia and
Turkey came out, to their own surprise, as champions of a
constitution. They demanded that the power of Miloš should be limited
by something which they euphemistically called "an organic
regulation." Finally, there was imposed on him a Senate consisting of
members appointed for life, but when this body asked him to account
for the manner in which he had spent the public funds the Prince found
that he could not allow himself to be so hampered and, in 1839, he
abdicated. ("If," he once said, "if Charles X. of France had
understood how to govern as I myself did in Serbia, he would never
have lost his throne.") Vutčić, his arch-enemy, flung a stone after
him into the Save. "You will not return," he cried, "until a stone can
float on these waters!" "I shall die as Serbia's ruler!" shouted
Miloš. (And when he ultimately did come back Vutčić was cast into
prison, where he died mysteriously--Miloš refusing the Turks
permission to examine the body.)


THE SLAV SOUL OF CROATIA

His democracy, in spite of his agrarian reforms, was very far from
that of Vuk, and far from that of a young noble of Croatia, Ljudevit
Gaj, who one evening in the drawing-room of Count Drašković--the
same Count Drašković who wrote in German, for such was the
spirit of the time, his Exhortation to Croatian Maidens that they
should be truly Croatian--well, in this gentleman's house at Zagreb
Ljudevit Gaj recites some verses he has written for a dowager. They
are in Slav. The audience is inclined to be amused. Of course they
know something of the language because, like Anastasius Grün in the
Slovene country, they talk it to the servants. But among themselves in
Croatia the upper classes prefer to use Latin. There is no doubt, as
Count Louis Voinović, a Yugoslav poet, has said, that this pursuit
of Latin brought into the Slav world much that is indispensable in
modern thought. It created among them an atmosphere of social
courtesy, which, according to Saint Francis of Assisi, is the sister
of Charity. It has humanized the Slav world and furnished it thus with
formidable weapons. But, on the other hand, it cast a veil over the
differences between the nations and caused people to be blind to their
own national genius. The Croat nobility, with few exceptions, were at
this time so much in harmony with the Magyar magnates, so anxious to
prevent their peasants from hearing the Marseillaise, that they would,
if need be, learn the Magyar language. But to use Slav in a
drawing-room! This was a new idea. They smiled good-naturedly; but
Gaj, with some other young men, some priests and some savants, founded
a literary brotherhood that was to become famous under the name of
"Danica." Famous also is an image he conceived. "The Southern Slavs,"
said he, in his programme of 1836, "are as a triangular lyre whose
extremities are at Scutari, Villach and Varna." He said there was a
time when the strings of this lyre resounded with harmonious sounds,
but that the winds in their fury have torn them. Styria, Carinthia,
Carniola, Croatia, Slavonia, Montenegro, Herzegovina, Serbia, Bulgaria
and Southern Hungary are these broken strings, which it is necessary
to repair. Let the people in these lands, he said, forget their
religious differences and remember that they are the children of one
mother. Let them write the same language. Gaj thus aimed at bringing
Vuk's reforms to bear upon the Latin characters with which the
Serbo-Croat language is written in Croatia. Before his party was
victorious it had to vanquish most determined opposition. Pamphlet was
hurled against pamphlet, grammar against grammar, Gaj and his men had
to overcome not only those who were the guardians of tradition, but
all those who thought it natural and proper that in syntax there
should be some difference between the Croat and the Serb. Yet now the
philologists are out and the poets; their business takes them between
the legs of the Great Powers, where they sometimes come to grief, but
they are striking all those fetters from their nation. Peter
Preradović is born in the Military Frontier and he dies an
Austrian General. At the beginning of his distinguished career he
could speak nothing but German, and it was in emotional German poetry
that he first expressed himself. But afterwards, carried away by the
new winds that were cleansing the Croat language and sweeping from it
the reproach of being a mere jargon for the servants, he became in his
"Putnik" (The Traveller) and "Braca" (The Brothers) the greatest poet
of the Croats. It is noteworthy that when this Austrian General writes
a drama he takes for his hero the old legendary hero of the Serbs,
Marko Kraljević. The Ban of Croatia, Ivan Mazuranić, is a Latin
poet in his youth; but when this high official too comes under the
stirring influence of Gaj he dedicates himself to his own people and
composes in "The Death of Smail Aga"[40] a poem that among
Serbian-speaking people has become so much the property of all that
the poet has been lost in the shadow of his own work. Peasants who
sing fragments of it as they toil in the fields, and the minstrel, the
guslar, who chants it for them of an evening, believe that it is, like
their folk-songs, the anonymous production of the Serbian people.


THE MAGYARS AND CROATIA'S PORT

With the General and the Ban there is the Bishop, Joseph George
Strossmayer, one of the greatest men of the nineteenth century. But
before he became Bishop of Djakovo he saw the Government suppress
those aspirations which he laboured for throughout his life. The
Austrian Government had presented Gaj, in recognition of his literary
work, with a diamond ring; but when they saw that his Illyrian
programme persisted in aiming at the union of Croatia and Dalmatia,
then at last they vetoed his Illyrianism and the word Illyria. His
friends thereupon called themselves the "National party," which was in
the Croatian Diet more numerous than the "Magyarones," who--many of
them unprogressive landlords--stood for the most absolute union with
Hungary. The National party demanded that Rieka, which was still
"separatum sacræ regni Hungariæ adnexum corpus," should be united with
the rest of Croatia; but the Magyars would naturally not let their one
small port be taken from them. Those among the Magyars who consented
to discuss the matter with the Croats said that if indeed they had
purloined one Croat port (for they confessed that 350 kilometres
separate Rieka from the nearest place in Hungary), yet the Croatians
could afford to treat them with generosity, since they possessed at
least two other ports, Bakar and Zengg, that were every bit as good.
It was quite true that till Rieka was connected by the railway to the
valleys of the Save, the Drave and the Danube, she had no advantage
over Zengg and Bakar. None of these are natural ports: at Rieka there
is no protecting island, Zengg and Bakar are available for small ships
only, and behind all three there is a barrier of mountains. All of
them, moreover, suffer from the visitations of the bora, which blows
from the north sometimes for weeks on end. Having pointed out their
own necessities and all these limitations, the Magyars stayed at
Rieka. But they cast about them for some means by which the
inconvenient Croats could be countered, and of course the simplest
plan was to protect, as Austria was doing in Dalmatia, that small
party of the Slavs on whom the presence of a few Italians at Rieka and
their knowledge of this language and perhaps their education at some
school in Italy had made such a profound impression that they wished
no longer to be looked upon as Slavs--and some of them quite honestly
thought that they were not Slavs. Of such was the Autonomist party,
whose sole purpose was to flourish at Rieka in alliance with
Hungarians and to keep Rieka a free Hungarian town. Perhaps the
Magyars had no choice of methods, but it does not look magnanimous to
plant yourself in some one else's house and then proceed to make
conspiracies with a disgruntled child. They succoured the Autonomists
in every way. For instance, the Croats had, as elsewhere on the coast,
been so unjustly kept from having schools. The two or three schools in
existence were for those who turned their back on national ambitions
and cultivated modern Italian, even as the nobles up at Zagreb had
cultivated Latin. Now in 1838 the Croats of Rieka, who--it is needless
to say--were much the more numerous part of the population, thought
that Gaj's wonderful educational movement, which was spreading far and
wide, should not find Rieka unresponsive. So they asked that the
Croatian language should be taught, as well as the Italian, in the
local schools. "This was the first attempt," says Mr. Edoardo
Susmel,[41] who is, I gather, a schoolmaster or an ex-schoolmaster at
Rieka. "But the people of Rieka," he says, "always with admirable
tenacity resisted the brute force with which the Croats wanted to
impose on the Italian city the rights of him who is strongest. The
city arose as one man against this first attack and the schools
remained Italian."

The conflict in the Croatian Diet between the National party and that
of the Magyarones grew in violence. The latter, egged on from
Buda-Pest, demanded in the most peremptory fashion that the Croat
deputies should henceforward speak in Magyar instead of Latin. It was
in the same year, 1843, that one of the deputies, Ivan Kukulejević,
made the first speech in Croatian. Szemere, a Magyar, cried out
furiously that Croatia was a land which had been conquered by force of
arms, and the Hungarian Parliament went so far as to pass a law which
made the teaching of Magyar obligatory in Croatian schools and for the
Croatian delegates in the Hungarian Diet. The Croats replied by
petitioning the Emperor to separate their country completely from
Hungary. Ferdinand V. wavered between the two sides; in 1843 he
annulled the decisions of the Hungarian Parliament, and in 1844 he
laid it down that in six years the Croats would have to adopt Magyar
as their official language. It seemed as if the questions between
Magyar and Croat could be settled by no other method than by war.


THE SULTAN REIGNS IN BOSNIA

There was not in the other Southern Slav lands much consolation for
the National party. In Bosnia the French Revolution and the Serbian
wars of independence had an unfortunate effect, for in 1831 the
Muhammedan Serbs of that province, under the leadership of Hussein
Bey, the captain of Gradačac, began a holy war against the "giaour
Sultan," because Mahmud thought it timely to promulgate a few reforms.
Hussein assumed the title of "The Dragon of Bosnia"; and if it had not
been for several other Moslem potentates who were not only inimical to
the Sultan but to the Dragon and to each other, it would have taken
the Sultan's army more than five years to assert itself. In 1839 the
Sultan's representative at Gulhane had orders to reform the
administration, and this time the chief of the indignant begs was Ali
Pasha Rizvanbegović, a powerful personage in Herzegovina. The
revolt was, after a good deal of bloodshed, suppressed by Omar Pasha,
who was determined to break once and for all the arrogance of the
Bosnian aristocracy. Hundreds of begs were executed, drowned in the
Bosna or taken in chains to Constantinople. But all these transactions
did nothing to improve the lot of the raia. They had been roundly told
in 1832 by His Apostolic Majesty that any one of those Christians "who
persist in venturing to raise the banner of revolt" would be sent back
from the Imperial and Royal frontier. After all there was a courtesy
which monarchs must maintain towards each other.


A SORRY PERIOD FOR THE SOUTHERN SLAVS

When the Croat National party looked at Serbia they saw a people torn
in two by rival dynasties: Michael, the son of Miloš, had after a
few years followed his father into exile, as he also could not grow
accustomed to ruling with a Constitution. After him came Alexander,
son of the assassinated Kara George. He was a cold, indifferent,
slothful prince, and constantly the banished house of Obrenović was
plotting to turn out this scion of the house of Kara George. But after
sixteen years his people turned him out.... In the Banat the Serbs
were going backward. For example, they were at the summit of their
strength in Arad in the eighteenth century, and since then they had
been unable to resist the German wave. Time was when Arad had a
Serbian princess, the wife of blinded Bela; and they were much
esteemed when from 1703-1711 the Serbian cavalry and infantry had
fought so strenuously for Austria against the rebels. Afterwards the
Austrians believed they could get on without the Serbs; they started
to destroy their privileges and to persuade them to give up their
Church--it was in consequence of this that many of the Serbs in Arad
went to Russia. A certain Colonel Peter Szejadinac objected to the
Austrian policy and came to Arad for the purpose of procuring some
alleviation for the Serbs, but he was broken on the wheel. In
Temešvar the Serbs had also basked in glory. Until 1818 they had
owned all but seventeen houses of the inner town; they had their own
magistrature. Until 1860 they remained the wealthiest community, but
here also there was an influx of Germans against which they could not
stand.


SOME WHO TURN FROM POLITICS GROW PROSPEROUS

However, owing to this endless struggle which the Serbs of Hungary
were waging, they developed their activity and energy. The land was
rich, particularly Bačka, and that province held the town of Novi
Sad, which was not only prosperous but the home of learning. When
Serbia was not in a position to devote herself to intellectual or to
literary life, she was assisted always by the Serbs of Novi Sad. And
thus in other parts of southern Hungary the Serb, by his continual
efforts against other people, such as the industrious German, made to
flower those aptitudes within himself which under Turkish domination
had perforce been lying dormant.... It is no unusual thing in the
Banat to find a Serbian farmer who is five or six times a millionaire
in francs. And if, like a hearty one whom I found having lunch without
a collar, they have no children, then they are even more anxious to
build schools and churches and to support anything Serbian. This
gentleman, who lived in his native place, had presented it with a very
fine school, and then had gone there himself, to learn how to read and
write.... The Serbs of southern Hungary took a most active part in the
events of 1848. When they saw that a conflict with the Magyars was
inevitable, owing to the new Hungarian Constitution which created an
enormous and free Hungary, but only free for the Magyars--a State
founded on a mixture of democratic and feudal principles, reserving
always the chief places for the magnates, lay and ecclesiastic, while
rejecting the idea of universal suffrage--then the Serbs of southern
Hungary assembled at Karlovci at the beginning of May and conferred
upon Archbishop Rajacsich the title of Patriarch, at the same time
electing Colonel Stephen Čuplikac the voivoda or chief of the
Serbian Voivodina, which was to comprise Syrmia, Baranja, Bačka and
a part of the Banat.


BUT THE CROATS STRIVE FOR POLITICAL LIBERTIES

The Croats, whose last traces of independence had been wiped out by
the Magyars, rallied round Colonel Joseph Jellačić. In the
resounding and statesmanlike phrases of his proclamation on March 11,
Jellačić had declared that a grand purpose was before them. "It
is to attain," said he, "the renascence of our people! Alone I can do
nothing, if among the sons of one same mother there is not peace and
understanding and fraternity."

"We are," exclaimed Gaj at a sitting of the Diet--"we are one nation!
There are no more Serbs nor Croats!" One has been too apt to consider
that the Croats armed themselves merely in defence of their own
wrongs; their leaders anyhow looked far beyond.

Two days after Jellačić had uttered these words the court of
Vienna, aghast at the tempest that was blowing from everywhere, from
Prague and Galicia and Hungary, from Lombardy and Venetia, and from
their own easy-going capital, had destituted Metternich. On the next
morning the Emperor made it known that he would grant his peoples all
the liberties they wanted. He had not had time to ascertain whether
this would gratify the Magyars. But as one of the Croatian liberties
was the nomination of Jellačić as their Ban, the Emperor
appointed him; Jellačić joined hands with the National party and
proceeded to break all the chains that bound Croatia to Hungary. By
his circular of April 19 he instructed the Croats to respect no other
authority but his. Slavonia, Dalmatia, the Military Frontiers and
Rieka were, according to his plan, to be reunited to Croatia.


THE AUSTRIANS, THE MAGYARS AND THE CROATS

The Emperor's plans were far less definite. Between Croat and Magyar
he was unable to make up his mind. What he wanted most of all was
recruits for his Italian armies, seeing that Radetzky had been forced
back by the insurgents, and Venice, under the presidency of Daniel
Manin, had separated herself from Austria. When the Hungarians
declared themselves willing to help with their army in putting a stop
to the national movement in Italy, then the grateful Ferdinand
bestowed on them a mandate to put a similar stop to the "Croat
separatism"; he also suspended the Ban and declared him a traitor to
the Fatherland. This did not unduly depress Jellačić, for in the
month of June he was solemnly installed by the Patriarch Rajacsich in
the cathedral of Zagreb. On this occasion the Mass was sung in old
Slavonic by the Bishop of Zengg, and on leaving the cathedral another
service was held in the Orthodox Church. "We desire by this solemn
manifestation," said the Croats, "to make it clear to all the world
that the brothers who belong to the Catholic and to the Orthodox
religions have one heart and one soul."

Meanwhile the citizens of Vienna had revolted, and the Court, although
the Magyars offered their hospitality, considered it prudent to take
shelter at Innsbruck. It was to that town that the Croats sent in June
a deputation which explained to the Emperor that Croatia had for
centuries and under various dynasties been an autonomous country, and
that the Magyars had not only, by their new laws, abolished this state
of things but had also abolished the link that joined them to his
empire, for they would henceforward have a personage, the Palatine, at
Buda-Pest wielding executive power at such times as the Emperor was
absent. The Croats showed the Emperor that he could thus not rule both
at Vienna and Buda-Pest except if he could be in both places
simultaneously; and Ferdinand acknowledged that this was correct and
that the Magyars had their foibles, but that they were on the point
of sending him recruits. "We hoped," said the Croats, "that in a new
world of liberty the Magyars would recognize the other races as their
equals. We have been disillusioned, as you will be. And in July when
Ferdinand announced, on the advice of Radetzky, that he would continue
the operations in the Italian provinces until the bitter end, it
became necessary for him to have these recruits. "We are prepared,"
said Kossuth, "to send a Hungarian army to Italy--in principle." But
while they were debating whether this would not expose them to the
Croats, they were called upon to put down a revolt in the Banat, where
the Roumanian population was quiescent and the Serbs had risen to
assert the rights of the non-Magyar peoples. There the Serbs advanced
victoriously, as did the Austrian troops in Italy. This caused the
Emperor to assume another tone when he addressed the Magyars. Let them
send a deputation to Vienna, where the Croats would be represented
also; and together they would come to an arrangement regulating their
relations to each other. The Hungarians were obstinate, chose Kossuth
to be their dictator and thus began the revolution.


THE CROATS, STRUGGLING FOR FREEDOM, INCIDENTALLY HELP AUSTRIA

Jellačić, on September 11, crossed the Drave with forty thousand
Croats, annexed the territory between the Drave and the Mur, and
advanced without opposition up to Lake Balaton. His commissary,
General Joseph Brinjevac, occupied Rieka. They were confident that
History would not misjudge them. "We demand," said Jellačić, in
his declaration of war, "we demand equality of rights for all the
peoples and for all the nationalities who live under the Hungarian
crown." Before he left Zagreb he transformed the feudal Croatian Diet
into an elective assembly. This new Parliament cancelled the
institution of serfdom and proclaimed that one of their objects was to
have the Habsburg monarchy a federation, on the model of Switzerland.
One would suppose that it was clear to everyone that Jellačić
was not fighting for the Habsburgs but for the subjected
nationalities, and that if the vacillating Austrians who had outlawed
him on account of his nationalist views later on joined him in his
attacks on the Magyars, this does not show that he was fighting
Austria's battles. "The banner which the Croats have unfurled," said
Cavour in a great parliamentary speech a month later, "is a Slav
banner, and in no way, as some people suppose, the banner of reaction
and of despotism.... His [Jellačić's] chief, if not his only,
aim was the redemption of the Slav nationality." This page would
doubtless be more dignified if, after the dead lion, it did not refer
to Mr. Edoardo Susmel; but since the autumn of 1918 a large number of
people at Rieka have pinned their faith to Susmel rather than
Cavour--his book was handed to me in a most impressive manner by the
mayor. Let us see, therefore, what he says of 1848. "When the Croats,"
says he, "on account of national reasons"--so far we are with
him--"and on account of their loyalty to Austria, on account of the
desire of Jellačić and by order of the Emperor attacked Hungary,
which was at that time fighting for freedom, they also threw
themselves upon Rieka.... For the first and solitary time Rieka fell
into the hands of the Croats. It was, wrote the contemporary Giacich,
an enemy invasion." Mr. Susmel sails merrily ahead, for he knows that
Truth is mighty and that it is said to prevail; but in order to
convince the most captious he calls on Mr. Giacich to testify. I know
nothing about Mr. Giacich except that he was a contemporary--and yet
it seems that one ought not to wish that Mr. Susmel had rather put his
faith in Cavour, who was also a contemporary, since that gentleman was
far less capable and never could have proved that when a Croat army
comes into a Croat town it is engaged upon an enemy invasion.

The Magyars were not to be repressed so easily, and Ferdinand made
promise after promise to the Croats and the Serbs if they would help
to overcome this people. From Serbia itself came many volunteers to
aid their brothers who were trying to throw off the Magyar yoke; they
came with the connivance of Prince Alexander, in fact, he sent one of
his generals to lead them. And a great many hasty Kossuth enthusiasts
in Western Europe, knowing only that the Magyars, a chivalrous
nation, had been in arms against the despotic Habsburgs, and that the
Serbs and Croats had a considerable share in subduing them, could not
find invective virulent enough for this abominable brood of hell,
whose one desire it was to be a tyrant's executioners. They were
denounced as having not the least conception of independence; for a
people of a disposition so abandoned there was not the faintest hope
of any future; and the day would come when these outrageous little
nations would be wiped away. Had not the noble Kossuth spoken like a
prophet when he asked disdainfully where was Croatia, for he could not
find it on the map?

In December the new Emperor, Francis Joseph, began to rule his
variegated realm with justice. He confirmed the Serbian Patriarch and
Voivoda, who had been chosen in the previous May, and he bestowed upon
the Serbs of Syrmia and Bačka and the Banat a territory of their
own, with their own organization and jurisdiction. Even a less
extensive Serbian authority, namely, the Banat town of Velika Kikinda,
with its ten dependent villages, raised its own taxes, had its own
police and had the power of life and death. There was, indeed, a cloud
which came across the Serbians' happiness when Čuplikac, the
Voivoda, died suddenly. He was at Pančevo when he received from the
Emperor the gracious edict and a box of cigars. No sooner had he
mounted his horse, lit one of the cigars and uttered the word
"Brother," than he fell down dead. As for the Croats, the Emperor made
Jellačić governor of Dalmatia, which signified the union of that
province to Croatia.


HOW MONTENEGRO REFORMED HERSELF

There was a poet on the throne of Montenegro, the greatest of Yugoslav
poets, who now that the civil governor (to whom had been entrusted
certain duties which it had been thought a bishop should not
exercise)--now that this official was expelled, reigned over
Montenegro as the first and last real Prince-Bishop. He was a
magnificent person, even for a Montenegrin, since his height was no
less than 6 feet 8 inches; and in his determination to establish order
in the principality he had let nothing intervene. As Russia, after a
longish interval, resumed her subsidies and paid Peter II. an annual
allowance of nine thousand ducats, together with arms, ammunition and
wheat, the Prince-Bishop was relieved of the necessity of taxing his
people. This made it easier for him to build up a strong central power
that would not be dependent on the tribal chiefs, though it is
doubtful if a despotism was more suitable for Montenegro's economic
circumstances than the patriarchal form of government. Peter
surrounded himself with a senate of twelve members, whose salaries he
paid, a bodyguard of a few dozen and a police force of several
hundred. These men, who lived to execute his wishes, were the
instruments by which he set about improving Montenegro. The vendetta
was to give way to the law court; there was something to be said,
though, for the people who withstood this innovation, since the
court's decision was the will of Peter. But no arguments protected
anyone who clung to the old-fashioned ways of the vendetta or of
brigandage or theft from being placed before a file of the
Prince-Bishop's men. Tales are still recited in the primitive, bleak
homes of Montenegro touching the great number of his subjects whom the
poet put to death. But that was not the only penalty, for of the two
European institutions with which he had embellished his capital one
was a prison. The other was a printing-press, in which he had a
childish joy. Once when he was entertaining King Augustus of Saxony he
composed a poem for him while they were at supper; it was printed in
the night; the happy author, next morning, not a little proud of this
achievement, gave a copy to the King. He issued an official paper from
this printing-press; its name was _Grlica_, which means "The
Turtle-Dove."


THE PRINCE-BISHOP GIVES A LEAD TO THE SOUTHERN SLAVS

Now Peter thought the moment had arrived for Jellačić to found
at last an independent Yugoslav dominion. On December 20, 1848, he
wrote to him: "An inscrutable destiny has placed you, O illustrious
Ban, at the head of the Southern Slavs. You have preserved their
throne, their destiny for the Habsburgs.... A grand mission is yours;
from it may arise a new formation of Europe. Its accomplishment would
absolve the Slavs from the shame of having been the miserable slaves
or the paid creatures of others. As for me, I am free, at the head, it
is true, of a handful of men, despite the double malediction of
tyranny and espionage." [Here he is referring to his neighbours,
Austria and Turkey.] "But what does that matter when I look round me
at millions of brothers who are in alien bondage? Occupy Dalmatia
immediately and let us join each other. That which one does not
conquer with _heroic right_ is worth nothing. I am ready to come to
your help with my Montenegrins." To these overtures Jellačić
gave an evasive reply. It may be that he did not deem the moment
opportune, it may be that, as some have said, he came under the
atavistic influence of the military traditions of the Croats, whose
long years of fighting for the Habsburgs had made them as devoted to
that House as the Dalmatians had been for so long to Venice. The
Habsburgs had exploited them, but the Croats felt that they were bound
by all the blood which they had shed and by the military glory they
had won in Austria's service. Had not Tomasić and Milutinović
been the Generals--both Croats--who were sent to change Napoleon's
Dalmatia into a province of the Habsburgs? And the list is endless.
Jellačić was very probably deceived by Francis Joseph, who kept
dangling before his eyes a vision of a "Greater Croatia." But, by an
irony of history, this hope of union of the Southern Slavs was for the
time flung very much into the background by the action of the Tzar,
who rescued Austria when in 1849 she was again at variance with the
Magyars. Kossuth had been furious at the Constitution promulgated in
the spring of that year, which not only made obsolete most of
Hungary's privileges, but introduced the principle of equality among
the various nationalities. The Hungarians had been too much accustomed
to the classing of races as first-class people and second-class
people. When they had been reduced--the Russian methods being
drastic--and when their thirteen Generals had been executed at Arad,
Francis Joseph thanked the Croats "for their ceaseless energy and for
their numerous sacrifices in the interests of the State." But
Jellačić did not move, and the Prince-Bishop wrote to Count
Pozza, a friend of his at Dubrovnik. "I had hoped for an instant, my
dear Count," he wrote, "but I am now convinced that Yugoslavism is,
for the time being, merely an idle word. The Yugoslavs are unconscious
of their own strength and sell themselves unconditionally to the
strongest. It is a subject of profound grief for those who love them
and for sensitive souls." Peter II. did not long survive. He may have
wondered sometimes why the Croats did not call for him instead of
Jellačić, since his methods of administration had been so
successful in the principality. He may have meditated sometimes on the
Russians, wondering how one nation could be both so highly meritorious
and so bloodthirsty. He died, aged thirty-nine, a disappointed man.
(His _Turtle-Dove_ expired some time before.) And he was buried, as he
wished, upon a lonely peak of Lovčen, that vast mountain over Kotor
which, until the deed of his great-nephew's son, his namesake, was
impregnable. Peter II. had always been a man apart--it was his opinion
that his Church was being choked with formalism and with ceremonial,
and though he was a Bishop he went to church infrequently. The poet in
him was much more attracted to the Bogomile sect, which taught that
God had two sons, of whom the elder was Satan and the younger Christ;
and when the world was created, the elder, seeing how lovely it was,
separated himself from his Father in order to rule the world; and
afterwards God sent the younger son to punish him.... Peter had far
greater merits as a poet than as a ruler. In fact, Pushkin is perhaps
the only Slav poet who surpasses him, and his philosophy is more
original than that of Tolstoi. There came to Montenegro one
Ivanović, a Russian missionary, whom Peter appointed to be
President of the Senate. Peter used to live chiefly in Venice, Rome or
Naples, only coming to Montenegro as a guest, and it was during his
residence in Naples that Ivanović introduced a number of reforms.
According to the general opinion, Peter was the greatest Yugoslav that
ever lived; as a ruler he was neither good nor bad.


AUSTRIA POURS OUT A GERMAN FLOOD

Now that the Austrians had escaped from all their perils, and
Napoleon's _coup d'état_ had removed the danger of another revolution
in France, they took in hand the burying of the recent Constitution
which had given so much umbrage to the Magyars and to the Croats no
vast pleasure. In its place, in 1851, the policy of Bach, an
absolutist and a German policy, was introduced. The Croats and the
Serbs of southern Hungary were treated differently, the latter being
given not the territory they had claimed but one much more extensive,
so that they themselves were in a great minority.[42] The Croats found
themselves, of course, no longer joined to the Dalmatians. Everywhere
a flood of Germans, the "huzzars of Bach," was loosened on the
population; German was erected to be the official language. But the
Slovenes took advantage even of the German atmosphere. Their national
consciousness, which Napoleon had awakened after centuries, was now
aroused. They took small interest, as yet, in politics, but strove to
make material progress, principally in agriculture, partly too in
commerce, such as in the exploitation of their splendid forests. Like
the Slavs of Istria, they had no educated class--except the
clergy--which was strong enough and was sufficiently well organized to
lead them. Consequently it was difficult to make much headway in the
towns against the Germans here and the Italians there. But they were
not discouraged; by means of organizations, political and economic,
they fought this denationalizing effect of the towns. That they
succeeded in arresting the tendency--for example at Gorica and
Triest--is even more laudable in view of the serious educational
handicap which for years they had to face, and which the Austrians
continued to inflict upon them until 1914. The provincial
administration of Carinthia, for instance, was in 1914 maintaining
three Slovene schools and six hundred and twelve German schools,
although the Slovenes formed one-third of the population. What the
Austrians said was that German was a world-language and that it was a
fad to want to learn Slovene. Perhaps the Slovenes told them that
Welsh is not a world-language. Anyhow, being not only a patriotic but
a very practical race, they built their own schools in the villages,
with the result that they have to-day a far smaller proportion of
illiterates--17½ per cent.--than either the Croats or the Serbs. It
was well that they were patriotic and practical; they would otherwise
have reaped a bitter harvest. The Slavs of Istria, Croatia and
Dalmatia were in contact with no German territories and were for that
reason left in the cold shades. The Slovenes, having Germans near them
and among them, had to have a share in what the Germans were enjoying
and they reaped sagaciously. One must admit that it was practical on
Austria's part to favour the Italian language in Dalmatia, for it was
from there that she supplied herself with functionaries for the
provinces of Lombardy and Venice.


THE CROAT PEASANTS AND THEIR CLERGY

The Croat peasants were in a much worse condition than the Slovenes,
and the nobles who might have assisted them in building schools had
recently been ruined by the Austrian agrarian policy, for when in 1853
the Austrians put into execution what the Diet of Croatia had resolved
to do in 1848 and freed the peasants from their serfdom, the indemnity
they gave the landlords was in Austrian State papers, which the
landlords had to take at the face value, though this was far above
what they were worth. The owners of the so-called _latifundia_, mostly
German or Hungarian noblemen, lost very little; for their wide domains
were cultivated mostly by hired labour, not by peasants settled on the
land. But these big landlords were not eager to build schools for
peasants. It is said these should have been provided by the Church.
The Croatian clergy in the villages would stand in a much better light
if they had, irrespective of the higher clergy, made more vigorous
attempts to bring down the illiteracy figures which to-day are said to
be, for Croatia and Slavonia, 65 per cent. The higher clergy worked,
with very few exceptions, hand in hand with Austria's Government,
which Government was, after the Concordat of 1855, the close ally of
Rome. If it was the Government's desire to build no schools, the
higher clergy for the most part acquiesced. It surely is a function of
a Government to occupy itself with education and to turn away from the
great landlords who are frightened that a peasantry more educated will
be troublesome. But those who have to bear a good part of the
criticism are the village clergy; it is human not to criticize them
half so much for what they left undone as for some aspects of their
private life. The usual old stories circulate to the effect that they
refuse to exercise their office till the peasant who is asking them to
baptize or to marry or to bury some one brings a suitable amount of
produce, eggs or fowls or something else, in lieu of money; but what
is a more serious matter is the question of women. Three-and-twenty
priests in the diocese of Zagreb passed a resolution a year or two ago
that they were in favour of a married clergy. A Yugoslav bishop told
me that most, if not all, of these gentlemen had anticipated the Papal
consent; but that in his diocese only 3 per cent. of the clergy lived
in sin [hostile critics say he should have added the word "openly"],
whereas in two other Yugoslav dioceses, which he named, such clergy
might amount to 50 per cent. An examination of this question, which
exists in other countries, would be unprofitable, were it not that in
Croatia, with a Roman Catholic and Orthodox population living very
often side by side, the circumstances are peculiar. The people do not
take up any narrow attitude towards the Church of which they are not
members: a Roman Catholic will go to an Orthodox and an Orthodox to a
Roman Catholic church if they have none of their own. They intermarry;
and since their sacred days, such as Christmas, are not celebrated at
the same time the non-celebrating congregation cease to work, out of
sympathy. Even with the alteration of the Orthodox calendar there will
be days which one community will keep as workless days, so that it may
go visiting the others and congratulating them. But this bland
behaviour of the people is unfortunately not maintained when they
discuss their priests. And in the Lika, where the population leads a
rough, laborious life, they are not satisfied to have an academical
discussion. They hold that if a man is celibate he is not manly, and
scenes have taken place which Hogarth might refuse to draw.


WHAT THE CZECHS ARE DOING TO-DAY

The twenty-three priests of the Zagreb diocese who were in favour of a
married clergy and of several other reforms could not stand up against
their ecclesiastical superiors. The movement has made no open progress
and their leader has been constrained to abandon Holy Orders and
become a timber merchant. Nevertheless the idea of a national Church
has not vanished; a good deal depends for other countries on the
degree of success which attends the newly established national Church
in Czecho-Slovakia. It already possesses over half a million adherents
out of a population of 13 millions. We may be going to witness the
rise of a series of national Churches, a consummation which--a Roman
Catholic might observe--will very likely be no more successful in
bringing nearer the brotherhood of man than the wide-flung Catholic
Church. The enthusiastic nationalism of such new Churches may, in
fact, help to postpone that happy state of things. In any case, and
whatever be the results, we shall do well not to ignore the beginnings
of what may be a mighty Reformation.

Ever since 1848 the Czech clergy have been anxious to obtain reforms,
not so much in dogma as in discipline. They assert that it is more in
accordance with the democratic spirit of the age if a priest is
selected not by some magnate but by his prospective parishioners; they
desire to have their mother-tongue employed for the liturgy--in this
respect they are in advance of most Catholic countries--and they wish
to allow their priests to marry or not to marry, as each man prefers.
This, one need hardly say, is the point which, almost to the exclusion
of all others, is taken up by the hostile compatriots of the new
believers. "It is nothing more nor less than this," said a portly
Benedictine abbot to me one day in Prague, "there are priests who live
in concubinage and they actually want to have it legalized!" But in
Czecho-Slovakia, with her vivid memories of the Hussites in the
fifteenth century--magnificent new monuments to John Huss decorate the
principal towns--in Czecho-Slovakia the old régime has not the same
power as in Croatia. At first the new Church was sneered at, being
called a Churchlet, then they called it a sect, and now they say it
may persist for fifty years. While its critics occupy themselves so
largely with the topic of clerical celibacy, the founders of the
Church themselves are much more interested in other questions. They do
not greatly concern themselves with their priests' apparel, holding
that this need not trouble them more than a little, since they are
striving for something more weighty--the freedom of conscience. In
this, as they say, they are carrying on the doctrines of Huss, which
were so bloodily repressed by the dominant party. Under Charles IV.
the Roman Catholic Church possessed about one-third of all the land in
Bohemia, while in Prague alone there were some three thousand priests.
And if the doctrines of Huss had not sunk deeply into the minds of the
Bohemians this new Church would have found her task very much more
difficult. The first three bishops were ordained last year by the
Serbian Bishop of Niš. It was at one time thought that the Orthodox
religion would be adopted, but this was found to be impossible, and
after a year of negotiations it was settled that the Serbian Church
should be regarded as a sister Church.

The significance of Czecho-Slovakia's new Church is to be found in the
national idea. So much is it a thing of the people and not of the
priests that several schoolmasters have had to be ordained, the clergy
being otherwise too scanty. In June 1919 a delegation from 3000
dissatisfied priests went to Rome. The Pope rejected what he called
their foolish novelties. In January 1920 a secret meeting of 200
priests was held in Prague and 144 of them declared themselves for a
new national Church. But few of them possessed the necessary
resolution, such as was displayed by Dr. Farsky, a very intelligent
and earnest young man who was Professor of Religion in the University
and has now been appointed the Head of this new Church, as Bishop of
Prague and Patriarch. His opponent, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Prague, has the reputation of being one of the cleverest of Czech
politicians, and it will be interesting to see how the position
develops. Since the War the Roman Catholic Church has lost 25 per
cent. of its members--during the War it was, in the opinion of many,
though perhaps it had no option, very much the servant of the
Habsburgs. And one imagines that the Archbishop is handicapped by the
demands of his party that the State should unquestionably continue to
pay the yearly interests of the large number of monasteries that were
dissolved more than a century ago by Joseph II. "All England's
troubles," said the Coadjutor-Archbishop to me, "emanate from the fact
that she nowadays pays nothing to the Church for those monasteries
that were suppressed by Henry VIII." It is doubtful whether the
Czechs, exulting in their regained liberty, will for the most part
take the side of Rome when the matter has been fully ventilated and
discussed. "We are not monarchist at all," said the Abbot Zavoral, "we
are true to the Republic, we are democratic. And discussion is
democratic, but," said he, "it should not be unlimited."


STROSSMAYER

To such a degree did the Austrian Government neglect its duties that,
ten years ago, Croatia and Slavonia were short of at least one
thousand school buildings and twelve hundred teachers. Bishop
Strossmayer, coming from a family[43] which had settled at the
sprawling town of Osiek, in Slavonia, did what he could. His Yugoslav
Academy at Zagreb, the Zagreb University and the Society for studying
the history of the Yugoslavs are but a few of the national
institutions to which he devoted the princely revenues of Djakovo.
From there this most remarkable man worked for the intellectual
advancement of all the Southern Slavs; he subsidized the brothers
Miladinoff who made the first collection of Bulgarian folk-songs (and
who, on account of this forbidden subject, were both subsequently
strangled at Constantinople); he paid for the education of young
students no matter from what Yugoslav country they came; when
Rački, the well-known Croat historian, was persecuted by the
Government and living in misery, Strossmayer begged him to come to
Djakovo, and Rački was his closest friend for many years; he built
a large gallery at Zagreb and filled it with pictures, sacred and
profane, and was as ready to assist a young artist in Istria as in
Macedonia. It may be that he caused a circular to be read in the
Croatian churches which referred to the Orthodox as "lost sheep," but
he never used a method other than by prayer and the example of his
life to cause them to forsake their fold; to him the forcible
conversions by the Turks were as abhorrent as a system that was used
in Bačka, where a whole village near Sombor was ennobled--but not
those who afterwards came to live there--for having joined the Roman
Church. He was himself no blind follower of the Vatican; and when he
went with a very princely retinue--in part the weakness of his humble
origin--to Rome in order to explain why he was unable to subscribe to
the dogma of Papal Infallibility, he ravished his audience with a
marvellous Latin oration, for he spoke many modern languages but was
most thoroughly at home in Latin. Often in conversation he passed from
one language to another, in search of what would best express his
meaning, and frequently he would have recourse to Latin. He became
reconciled to the dogma and it was due to the hostility of Magyar
potentates that he remained for more than fifty years the Bishop of
Djakovo, was not promoted to Zagreb nor made a cardinal. His fervent
and statesmanlike views can be seen in his correspondence[44] with
Gladstone. His head, like Gladstone's, caused one not to notice that
the rest of the body was unimpressive; they had the same brilliance of
eye. This man who worked continuously for the Southern Slavs could not
be always a _persona grata_ to Francis Joseph. Two remarks of the
Emperor's are handed down, but that one may be a legend which, with
the preface that Strossmayer was the only man to whom the Emperor was
ever rude, says that Francis Joseph accounted for some proceedings of
the bishop, as head of the National party in Croatia, by telling him
that he must have been drunk--and, overtaken by remorse, making him an
"Excellency" on the following day. Yet that story is certainly true
which recounts how in 1881 the Emperor at Belovar said to him that he
would sooner be an unimportant German Duke than Emperor of all the
Slavs.


THE TURK IN MONTENEGRO AND MACEDONIA

The Emperor of a great many Southern Slavs, the Sultan, had in his
time been satisfied if he could squeeze out of the Montenegrins so
much tribute as would every year pay for his slippers. He could send
an army now and then to devastate Cetinje and destroy the monastery
where the people's bishop lived, but in those mountains a large army
ran the risk of being ambushed and a very large one would be starved.
Besides, now that the European scientists and travellers were
beginning to go up to Montenegro and were, among the few sights of
Cetinje, always shown the shrivelled head of Kara Mahmud Pasha, who in
1796 had been defeated, it was not advisable, the Sultan thought, that
any other Turkish head of prominence should have this fate.... In
Macedonia it was very different; the population might have once been
warlike, but had so successfully been governed that some German
travellers of the sixteenth century, Hans Ternschwamm and Ritter
Gerlach, had described them as a "conquered, down-trodden, imprisoned
people" who did not dare to lift up their heads, a people who "without
intermission must toil for the Turks." And if three hundred years of
this life had not completely tamed them, the Sultan had every
confidence that the Greek Patriarch would tell the Powers what they
knew already, namely, that the Macedonian Christians only had to pay a
tenth and sometimes only an eleventh part of certain crops and that in
return they were protected by the Spahi from the ills which every
humbler man is heir to, and that the Powers, who politically said they
must respect the Sultan, must now morally respect him also. But in
1850 the Turkish Government made a change; in place of the old Spahi
there was installed a landlord who retained the name of Spahi but who
had none of his predecessor's careless benevolence. The property had
been hired out to him for life and his one object was to get from it
as much as possible. He made demands not only for a tenth but for a
fifth and even a third part, and not only of the maize and wheat but
of every product of the soil. Cattle, bees, vegetables, fruit--of all
of these he had to have his share; the peasant often cut his fruit
trees down as he could not afford to pay the various taxes that were
put on them. In the old days the Spahi had an arrangement with a whole
village, and a system so impersonal was much less onerous than when
demands were made from every household individually. The new sort of
Spahi was not only an evil product of the time, but as the progress of
industry in other countries was supplying the Turkish market with many
new commodities, so in order to acquire these articles for himself he
exacted more and more tribute from the helpless peasants. Progress in
Macedonia was not merely retarded--lands which had been under
cultivation were abandoned, and the peasant, having been despoiled of
everything, perhaps having borrowed money at 9 or 10 per cent., was no
longer able to get his living from the land on which so many
generations of his ancestors had laboured. It was no longer possible
for him to get the mess of maize and miserable bread, the strips of
repulsive-looking flesh that were his luxury, the medicine for his
underfed children who were moaning on the naked earth of his cabin,
and at the same time to make the necessary contributions to the
landlord or the landlord's agent, whom the villagers had to furnish
with a riding horse, with gun and ammunition, with furs and with
clothing appropriate to his position, with special gifts whenever he
or they were marrying, and with all the pretty girls on whom his eye
had rested. Therefore the _čifčija_ would lose the last shadow
of freedom, he would become a serf. His sowing and his reaping would
now be for another, and as it did not profit him at all to make the
land more fruitful, he was content with any prehistoric implement,
with little wooden ploughs and with a total absence of manure. And yet
this pitiable serf would often be in a position less deplorable than
that of one who had a little freedom left and who was called a free
man, for the Turk would treat him no worse than the mule whose
continual existence he desires. It does not seem surprising if these
Christians wanted to be liberated from the Turk and did not greatly
mind what uniform their rescuers would wear.


THE CHEERLESS STATE OF SERBIA

Meanwhile the Serbs of Hungary were saying that the state of things in
Serbia was desperate. It seemed so to a number of young men who found
the coldness of Prince Alexander and his anxiety to please the
Austrians both very much out of harmony with the new Liberal ideas of
Western Europe. They would have been horrified to see the plight of
Macedonia, which after the Crimean War became, if possible, still
worse, for during it the Porte took up the first loan; others
followed, and in a surprisingly short time the Turk stood face to face
with bankruptcy, so that in his dealings with the peasant he became
still more extortionate. To be sure the Liberal young men who were
publishing the _Omladinac_ and all those Southern Slavs who listened
to the voices which in Italy and Germany were craving union and
freedom, all of them saw in their dreams the freedom of the Southern
Slav, but Serbia and Montenegro were the only portions of his
patrimony which had any kind of independence and the Serbia of
Alexander was in a distressing state. The Prince had managed to stay
neutral during the Crimean War, in spite of the solicitations very
vehemently put by Austria and Russia and the Porte; this neutral
attitude secured for Serbia at the peace the benefit of having all her
rights henceforward guaranteed collectively by the Great Powers. Yet
Alexander was so anxious not to rouse the animosity of Austria that he
declined to summon the national assembly, the Skupština, in which
the people's rising aspirations could be heard. And, although the
family community, the "zadruga," was giving way to a more modern way
of life--much to the misgiving of those persons who believed that
strength lay rather in the union of thirty or forty people, under the
authority of the head of the house, than in a more dispersed society
which would encourage individual initiative--yet Serbia was still a
semi-Turkish and a quite despotic country, with all the civil service
largely filled by Serbs from Hungary and many of the higher offices in
the possession of the relatives of the Princess, for Alexander's wife,
a lady from the neighbourhood of Valjevo, was as celebrated for her
cleverness as for her beauty. It is regrettable that she did not
prefer to take in hand the women's legal status, which is still too
much like that of minors. When the princely pair had been expelled in
1858 and Miloš, to his infinite delight, called back from
Bucharest, his place of exile, there was yet a great deal for the
Omladina enthusiasts to do. Miloš at the age of seventy-eight was
senile; he would sit for hours outside his old, white Turkish house at
Čačak, while the passers-by knelt down to kiss his hand; in
church he would become oblivious to his surroundings and would
garrulously talk in a loud voice to friends around him.


THE SLAV VOICE IN MACEDONIA

Assuredly the Omladina Society had some knowledge of affairs in
Macedonia, for Dimitri Miladinoff, the elder of the two brothers, had
been at Karlovci, where he was offered the professorship of Greek at
the Serbian school. Miladinoff had been born at Struga in Macedonia
and educated at Jannina, where he noticed that a number of the names
of forests, rivers, villages and ruins sounded odd in Greek--they
seemed to have much more resemblance to the language spoken by the
Slavs who lived beyond his home, the Bulgars. This awoke a flame in
him. At Ochrida, where he was presently appointed as a teacher in the
school, he gave his lessons in the customary Greek, nor did he
undervalue the advantages the Macedonian Slavs could draw,
particularly at the stage they were in, from the study of Greek
literature and from the contemplation of the patriotic virtues of old
Greece. But at the same time he began to give his pupils a Bulgarian
translation of what they were learning; and one day in 1845 while he
was in the middle of a lesson, taught in that strange manner, on
Thucydides, the Russian archæologist Grigorović appeared and in
amazement cried, "But we are brothers!" It was to him a marvel that
these people's mother-tongue was Slav. Miladinoff had a project to
retain the Greek at college and to introduce Bulgarian in the
elementary schools, but when in 1848 he spoke of this at Ochrida the
notables had grown so hellenized that they considered an allusion to
their Slav origin as most offensive. Far from giving up his plan,
Miladinoff began a pilgrimage through Macedonia, pretending that his
object was to gather funds for the construction at Constantinople of a
Bulgar church. Everywhere he taught as he had done at Ochrida, and the
elucidation, for example, of Demosthenes enabled him to plant his
patriotic seeds. It was in the course of his travels that he (and
afterwards his younger brother Constantine) collected the folk-songs
that were published by the generosity of Strossmayer. He stayed for a
time at Sarajevo and at Karlovci, where he was filled with emulation
by the progress which the Serbs had made. On his return in 1857 to
Macedonia the people of the town of Kukuš--near the future
boundaries of Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece--invited him to be
headmaster at their school. He was overjoyed that this town had the
courage to have the Bulgarian language taught, and we have his reply.
The Phanariote Greeks, he says, "will hurl their anathema against us!
The Bulgarian script is contrary to God! It will not be the first time
that they have proclaimed this! But those days are past! Already the
rays of dawn...." This letter is written in Greek. "Oh, how I am
ashamed," he says, "to express my sentiments in the Greek language!"
But the literary form of Bulgarian is, as yet, undeveloped. One year
after his arrival at Kukuš the population removed the Greek books
from their cathedral and listened to the singing of the Mass in Slav
by a Bulgarian monk from Mt. Athos. When he began to recite the Credo
in the ordinary Bulgarian tongue, the congregation fell on their knees
and burst into tears.


THE MACEDONIAN SLAVS ARE UNDIVIDED

Another Macedonian traveller was the highly distinguished Frenchman,
Ami Boué. His great book _La Turquie d'Europe_, in four volumes of
more than 500 pages each, appeared in Paris in 1840, and is a
veritable encyclopædia with which no other publication of the same
kind can be compared, either for the largeness of his scheme, the
versatility of his interests or the profound knowledge of his subject.
Well, he found that many Slavs of Macedonia, whom he calls Bulgars,
had their hopes centred in Miloš, who was then the reigning Serbian
Prince. The difference in their eyes between the two people was that
the Serbs had gained their independence. It was not as great an
independence as the Macedonians fancied, for in addition to the
vexatious remains of Turkish suzerainty there was the Greek
ecclesiastical rule. During the reigns of Kara George and Miloš the
Greeks insisted on having their language used for the liturgy in all
the Serbian towns, especially in Belgrade; after that period Greek and
Slav were used for half the service each, and this practice was
continued until 1858. Nevertheless for the unhappy Macedonians Serbia
was a land of radiant liberty. And whether it was going to be a Serb
or Bulgar who would rescue them--_qu'importe_? Ami Boué noted, as have
many others, that the Macedonian Slav in his physical characteristics,
in his language, in his outlook, in his native habits and in the
expression of his sentiments is intermediate between the Serbs and
Bulgars. And he says that as between the Serbs and Bulgars he does not
recognize a greater difference than there is between the Istrians, the
Dalmatians and the Croats, which is to say that there is none.

This point of view was quite familiar to the readers of the
_Omladinac_. Svetozar Marković, a leader of both Radicals and
Socialists in Serbia, was for a federated Balkan republic. Ljuben
Karaveloff wrote articles in Serbian, whose object was to show that,
in the liberation of the Southern Slavs, Serbia must take the lead.
Rakovski, the most active of Bulgarian Radicals, maintained that, in
default of union between the Southern Slavs, a selfish interference of
the Great Powers in the Balkans and unceasing wars among the natives
would be unavoidable. The ideas of Bogdanov regarding the Bulgarian
and Serbian languages were current. "It is not a tower of Babel," says
he, "but a temple of God. When we are united there will be no curse
yelled in a hundred voices but a harmonious prayer." And in another
passage he declares that "there is less difference, for example,
between Serbian and Bulgarian than between certain Italian dialects."


DAWN OF ITALIAN UNITY

While they were speaking Italy had acted. It is more true to say that
some Italians had acted. The defence of Venice and the five days at
Milan are glorious episodes, but those volunteers who flocked to
Garibaldi, notably from Piedmont, and of whose exploits we can never
hear enough--in what proportion were they to the inhabitants of the
Peninsula? The people as a whole exhibited indifference, which causes
Garibaldi to complain most bitterly. And if it had not been for the
genius of Cavour and his collaborators, for the diplomatic support of
England, the alliance with Prussia and, above all, for the French
army, the redemption of the country would have been delayed. No doubt
the Church had an enormous influence upon the people, no doubt in the
surviving mediæval States--the duchies and republics--whose government
belonged to the privileged classes, there was little to awaken popular
interest; no doubt great masses of the people were untouched by
education and the spread of new ideas--if freedom is a new idea; no
doubt the peasants in various parts of the country were in as
deplorable a plight as the peasants of to-day, which has had as one
effect the inexpansive manner, as Italian officers have testified,
with which the redeemed peasants of the Trentino and elsewhere often
welcomed their redeemers. And the Italian peasants of 1859 may be
pardoned for imagining that this world never would be made so good as
to include their own salvation. One can find sufficient excuses for
what occurred in Italy. Will not the Italians excuse, rather than
praise, the very, very small number of Yugoslavs who have stood out
against Yugoslavia? When Italy had been united did no Italians choose
rather to go into exile?


HOW CAVOUR WOULD HAVE TREATED THE SLAVS

Some Italians were so intoxicated with the success of Garibaldi's
troops and the French army that they began to see dangerous visions.
Once again, on December 28, 1860, they were warned by the great
founder of their country. "Let us avoid," wrote Cavour,[45] "every
expression which could permit one to suppose that the King's
government aspires not merely to the possession of Venice, but also to
that of Triest, with Istria and Dalmatia. I know well that in the
towns of the littoral the population is fundamentally Italian by race
and sentiments, but that the rest of the country belongs exclusively
to the Slavs.... Every word which touches this question, however
lightly it be uttered, would become a dangerous weapon in the hands of
our enemies. They would know very well how to use them in order to
raise up England against us, for that Power would also not look with
favour on the Adriatic Sea becoming, as in the days of Venice, an
Italian Sea." Cavour's opinion as to the towns was presumably based on
such researches as were made in 1842 by Kandler. The city of Triest
contained in that year 53,000 persons "who speak Italian" and 21,000
"who speak Slav"; but as Italian, an international language, was used
by the numerous German, Armenian, Greek, Turkish and Levantine
colonies, and was spoken in public by all the Slavs, the 53,000 would
lose a considerable proportion who were not fundamentally Italian by
race or sentiments. It may safely be stated, on the other hand, that
none of the Italians and an infinitely small number of the exotic
population would speak Slav, so that one may say that Triest contained
21,000 Slovenes. One need not attach overmuch importance to the fact
that the town in 1866, among other manifestations of loyalty
occasioned by the defeat of the Italian navy near Vis (Lissa), created
the Austrian Admiral Tegetthoff an honorary citizen. Even if the
53,000 had all been Italians, Triest might have thought it expedient
to act in this way.... Cavour may have accepted in very good faith the
similar figures for the little ports of western Istria; in them there
was no such miscellaneous population, but a large number of those who
spoke Italian did so because it was only at this period that the
Bishop, Dr. George Dobrila, the great regenerator of the Istrian
Yugoslavs, began to rouse his countrymen and to induce them not to
discard their own language. "Wachen sie die Slaven" ("Awaken the
Slavs"), said Francis Joseph before the war against Italy in 1866 when
he was anxious for the southern provinces; and although the Emperor
used various means to put the Slavs to sleep again, it may be noted
that in 1861 Cavour would learn that in the Diet there were two Slavs
against twenty-eight Italians, in the Parliament no single Slav;
whereas if he had lived another fifty years he would have seen the
same country returning nineteen Slav deputies to the Diet against
twenty-five Italians, and three to the Parliament at Vienna against
three Italians....


ITALIAN _v._ SLAV: TOMMASEO'S ADVICE

As for Dalmatia, where also the Italian-speaking population was not
fundamentally Italian by race or sentiments, we may turn to the
renowned Nicolo Tommaseo, whose authority the Italians do not dispute.
"We must not abolish the Italian language," he said--and this was in
the year 1861--"for it would be a dream of fools to wish or hope to be
able to abolish it immediately in public life without causing offence
and confusion and injury even for those who speak Illyrian; this would
be a tyranny the more abominable as it would be powerless ... because
the Illyrian tongue, as is the case more or less with all the Slav
languages, spoken by nations which up to the present have not entirely
participated in the abstractions of science and in the refinements of
European art, is not as yet equipped with all that reserve of terms
and locutions which is demanded in a highly developed social life,
_although that language possess in itself all the elements_." This
capacity which he recognized in the Slav languages and which came
subsequently to the surface in Russian and Czech literature, would, he
said, in two generations cause the Slav to be employed as the official
language of Dalmatia. He stipulated for two generations "because, in
the first place, it is necessary that this language should be learned
regularly in the schools from the lowest to the highest class, without
for that reason ever banishing Italian; and secondly, it is requisite
that men should become skilful in the use of this language and should
render it adequate for the needs of social life."


AUSTRIA LEANS ON GERMANS AND ITALIANISTS

For a moment after her Italian misfortunes Austria assumed a kindly
mien towards her Slavs. In the manifesto of July 15, 1859, which made
public the treaty of peace, the Emperor promised "immediate
modifications in the laws and in the administration." Bach, the German
reactionary, was succeeded by Goluchowski, and in April 1861 Ivan
Mazuranić became the Croat Chancellor at Vienna, with educational,
legal and religious affairs included in the sphere of his office. The
incorporation with Dalmatia was not granted then, but was promised. A
letter was, however, sent to Mamula, the governor of Dalmatia,
ordering him to create a majority hostile to the Emperor's letter of
December 5, 1860, in which he had invited the two provinces to send
their delegate to a conference at which the union would be discussed.
The shrill protests of the German party were successful; for the next
few years the Slavs were being pushed into their pit and then helped
half-way out again. Schmerling, the German, would evolve an electoral
system by which the Parliament must always have a German majority;
Francis Deak, the Hungarian, would make excellent proposals that too
often suffered shipwreck through no fault of his, he would manage to
pass liberal legislation which remained in after years upon the
statute book and was exhibited by Magyars to appreciative foreigners.
The general tendency of those years after the Italian disaster was
unfavourable to the Slav. In southern Hungary the Serbian duchy was
dissolved, despite their protests, after an existence of eleven years.
But as Francis Joseph was no longer able to bestow caresses on the
recreant Italians he transferred his love to the Dalmatian
autonomists, who now began to call themselves the Italian party. It
is probable that he smiled on these 2½ per cent. of the province,
not only because of his family traditions, his leaning towards Italian
art and the hope against hope that he would once more some day rule in
Italy, where he had his numerous well-wishers among the clergy and the
rural population--it is possible that he was gracious to the
autonomist Dalmatian party because they were a brake upon the national
sentiments. Until 1866 the whole administration was conducted in the
language of the 2½ per cent. In that year the Ministers of Justice
and of the Interior decided to ask officials who thenceforward entered
the Dalmatian service to have some sort of knowledge of the Illyrian
language. In 1869 these Ministers permitted the Dalmatian communities
to correspond in their own language with the tribunals and the
administrative authorities; while in 1887 the administrative
authorities and the tribunals were ordered to reply in Serbo-Croat to
the local bodies who used that language. The autonomist party may not
appeal to us and apparently it did not appeal to Nicolo Tommaseo. From
wherever he is he must be looking on with interest at a controversy
between two Italian writers who both published books on Dalmatia in
1915 and who bear witness--Mr. Cippico to the truth that Tommaseo was
an autonomist and Mr. Prezzolini to the truth that he was not. "The
theory of Tommaseo," says Mr. Cippico, "desires an autonomous Dalmatia
between the mountains and the sea." "Go to!" says Mr. Prezzolini.
"Have the kindness to read what the man writes. Here is a passage:
'Whatever one may say about it, it will not be Croatia, a poor
country, lacking in civilization, _but the opulent Slav provinces
subject to Turkey_ and morally less in subjection than Croatia, which,
when they and Dalmatia are united, will make her wealthy and the
mother of civilization and wealth. Destiny therefore lays it down that
Dalmatia in the days to come shall be the friend and not the subject
of Italy.' Tommaseo showed in 1848 what he thought of such a
subjection. 'In 1848,' he writes, 'I could have raised the whole of
Dalmatia with the help of an Italian colonel who with his men had
offered to dislodge the German governor of Zadar, but I refused; I
refused, because I foresaw.' And just as he was opposed to the union
with Italy, so likewise was he opposed to autonomy. You spoke of
mountains and the sea. Permit me to direct your attention to some
lines of his:

    'Nè più tre il monte e il mar, povero lembo
      Di terra e poche iznude isole sparte,
      O Patria mia, sarai; ma la rinata
      Serbia (guerniera mano e mite spirto)
      E quanti campi, all' italo sorriso
      Nati, impaluda l'ottoman letargo,
      Teco una vita ed un voler faranno....'

This one would translate as follows: 'Thou shalt no longer be, O my
country, a poor stretch of land between the mountains and the sea,
with some bare scattered islands; but Serbia reborn, that is now
sicklied o'er with Turkish lethargy, shall make one life and one
desire with thee and with all these fields that sprung into being
under an Italian smile.' If you really think that this proves that
Tommaseo contemplated a harmonious coexistence in Dalmatia of the two
countries, Serbia and Italy, then I beg you to read the passage once
again." This Mr. Antonio Cippico, by the way, is a native of Dalmatia
with most Italian sympathies; another Cippico from Dalmatia, a cousin
of his, has for years been a well-known littérateur in Belgrade, and
according to him the great majority of the Cippico family are of his
way of thinking.


THE SOUTHERN SLAV HOPES ARE CENTRED ON CETINJE

While Tommaseo foresaw this union, his contemporaries of the Omladina
strove for another one. Prince Michael Obrenović had, in 1860,
again succeeded his father, and as it was not known if he had
undergone a change in exile, the young patriots of the Omladina did
not look upon him as the saviour of the Serbian people. There was
again a poet on the throne of Montenegro, a youth of whom they heard
romantic things. Not only had Prince Nicholas borne arms against the
Turk, but he had sung in moving verse the glory of the Serbian
heritage, the triumphant union of the Serbs that was to be. Since 1860
he had guided Montenegro's destinies--his uncle, the first purely
temporal ruler, Danilo, having been assassinated in the Bocche di
Cattaro after a reign of warfare against the Turk, and his own
subjects, who resented the deposition of the tribal chiefs, the
imposition of terrific taxes, based on the number of cattle they
possessed, and occasional seduction of their wives. The Omladina knew
that Michael had been visiting the West, that he had frequented the
masters of science and politics in London, Paris and Berlin; but he
would probably forget their precepts and in any case he was much
duller than the splendid youth whom they affectionately called
Nikita.... Some historians have wondered why this young man did not
alienate the affection of his people by the slaughter of the Kadić
clan, whereof a member had assassinated Prince Danilo. But it was the
Senate which punished the murderer by exiling him, with seven families
of his kindred, to Turkey. Danilo had been aware of his intention,
while the man was waiting--in obedience to Austria's orders--at Kotor.
And the Prince, acting on a local custom, sent word that if Kadić
did not return to Montenegro he would bestow Mrs. Kadić on some one
else. After two weeks she became the wife of a neighbour. The story
that Kadić was avenging her seduction is an Austrian invention, for
Danilo seems never to have met her.

One day in 1862 the Turks, who still were in the Belgrade fortress,
started, for some foolish reason, to bombard the town. Prince Michael
in the subsequent negotiations showed that he had qualities one could
not but respect. Still he was unsuccessful (until 1867) in obtaining
the removal of the Turkish garrisons--Great Britain, fearing Russian
influence, and Austria, hostile to the total independence of the
Serbs, supported Turkey. And Michael governed with so firm a hand that
there were many who believed that the material improvement he was
introducing, schools of agriculture, schools of forestry and what not,
could be just as well inaugurated by the far more sympathetic Prince
Nikita. And when in 1866 Michael and Nikita made a grand convention
for the union of the Serbs in Serbia and in Montenegro, and Nikita
undertook to step aside, if necessary, so that all the independent
Serbs might be united under Michael's sceptre, then indeed the
Omladina talked of him with rapture. And Nikita made allusions to this
"grand refusal" all his life and with a face of honest pride. He
never mentioned anything about clause 3, which was not published. By
that clause Nikita was to be Prince Michael's heir, in case he had no
son. There was not much likelihood that he would have one, for the
Hungarian wife from whom he was divorced[46] had given him no
children, and the girl with whom he was overpoweringly in love was a
cousin, whom the Church, because of their relationship, prevented him
from marrying. It was with this girl that the Prince was always said
to have been walking in the park near Belgrade on June 10, 1868, when
he was mysteriously murdered.[47] After Michael's death the
Skupština, not acting in accordance with the secret clause, placed
on the throne a grandson (?) of a brother of Prince Miloš, who was
a minor and the nearest in the order of succession. By this time the
_Omladina_ had perceived that in the character of their romantic
prince lay certain lamentable traits. The friendship, which he had
inherited, with Russia he continued, and the Russian Court rewarded
him in no half-hearted fashion. When the Italians proposed in 1866
that he and they should share the Bocche di Cattaro, he said the
moment was not opportune; the Austrians for this bestowed on him a
pension which they paid until the outbreak of the World War. One could
understand, of course, that Nikita did not wish to rouse the enmity of
Austria; it must have hurt him to refrain from going to the Bocche,
where the population was most Slav and had endured a great deal for
the cause, but other men were hurt by his acceptance of the pension.


FOR THEY KNOW NEITHER NICHOLAS OF MONTENEGRO NOR MICHAEL OF SERBIA

Michael in those few years had displayed such qualities that he might
have united with his country Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria and
Macedonia. His statesmanship, which made such a result seem very
possible, may have induced some jealous partisans of the rival
Karageorgević dynasty to murder him; the same reasons would have
been sufficient for Austria. And Austria had given her formal consent
to a diplomatic plan for the solution of the Bosnian question, whereby
Michael was to administer the two distracted provinces as the Sultan's
mandatory. The decapitation of the begs by Omar Pasha had by no means
marked the dawn of a new era for the peasant. From 1856 till 1859 the
country was in a condition of such anarchy, with pashas tyrannizing
here and there, with villages obliged to take as their protector some
marauding ruffian who had settled in their midst, with young men
taking to the hills, that finally a conference was summoned, at
Austria's instigation, in Constantinople, and of this the upshot was
that the abuses practised hitherto by the great landlords were all
sanctioned if they would inaugurate no new ones. The Franciscan monks,
beloved by the people, had kept alive the people's hope that something
would be done for them; they could not stop the people from attempting
to obtain it by ill-organized revolts. From time to time there would
be a concerted movement; thus Luka Vukalović in 1862 fired his own
Herzegovina and also the Bocche di Cattaro, weapons and volunteers
came from Montenegro, and Vukalović was recognized by Turkey as the
military and civil head of an autonomous Herzegovina. But he was
subsequently forced to fly to Serbia, while the Turks had such
success against the Montenegrins that the Great Powers had to
intervene. And that was one of the most fruitful of the insurrections.
When the news was spread that Michael would arrive there were great
popular rejoicings. Christians and Muhammedans were busy, till the
time of his assassination, preparing for his solemn entry.


IF MICHAEL HAD LIVED!

Many of the Bulgars were as eager to associate themselves with
Michael. In 1862, when Belgrade was bombarded by the Turks, Rakovski
got together a Bulgarian legion which would fight in Serbia against
the common foe; in 1867 the Bulgarian Revolutionary Committee at
Bucharest, where these leaders of the people had sought sanctuary,
proposed the union of Bulgaria and Serbia under Michael. "Between the
Serbs and the Bulgars," says the first article, "there shall be
established a fraternal union calling itself the Yugoslav Kingdom." If
this idea had been put forward by any one but Rakovski one might
consider it a mere fantastic notion, but the Bulgars who elected this
extraordinary man to be their chief were, as is the habit of the
Bulgars, nothing if not practical.


THE STRANGE CAREER OF RAKOVSKI

Rakovski was born at the picturesque little town of Kotel in the
eastern Balkans, and was educated at Constantinople, but his ebullient
temperament did not allow him to pursue his studies to the end. He
turned up at Braila in 1841 and, being hardly twenty years of age, was
dreaming of a revolution of the Orient. With a group of insurgents he
tried to cross the Danube and to rouse the Bulgars. A Roumanian patrol
opens fire, on each side there are several killed and wounded. He is
captured and condemned to death, but having a Greek passport he is
rescued by the Greek Consul and put on board a boat which lands him at
Marseilles. For eighteen months he lives in France--it is not known
where--and is imbued with democratic doctrine. Passing through
Constantinople in 1843 he accepts a post as schoolmaster at Trnovo,
but is immediately at loggerheads with the Greek bishop and departs.
Returning to his birthplace he is irritated by the pride and harshness
of the upper class, and he attempts to make the people rise against
them. They charge him with being a disturber of the peace. "He has
travelled through Europe," says their complaint to the Government,
"and now in this town he bestrides a horse, brandishes his sword and
overwhelms the Turks with insults, both their race and their
religion." In consequence Rakovski and his father are arrested and
dispatched to Constantinople, where they both of them remain in prison
until 1847. After being liberated, he forms a secret society which is
to take advantage of the approaching Russo-Turkish conflict. Its
members are to have themselves enrolled among the Turks, with the
double object of protecting the Bulgarian population from excesses on
the part of the soldiery and also, at the propitious moment, to stir
them up and so assist the Russians. He himself is appointed to the
Turkish staff at Shumen, as first dragoman. His plot being discovered,
he is arrested and sent to Constantinople; on the way he escapes, but
he proceeds to Constantinople and organizes there a company of
heiduks. Turkey's entrance into the European concert fills him with
pessimism. The Bulgars at Constantinople believe that the civilizing
influence of the West will not be in vain. He foresees a more evil
despotism masked by the pseudo-liberal manœuvres of the Powers, and
henceforward he joins those Bulgars who agitate from Roumania or from
Serbia. He goes to the Banat, where he is not only made most welcome
but is enabled to publish _The Bulgarian News_, which is political,
and a literary supplement, _The Swan of the Danube_. The Turks are
uneasy; they ask the Austrians to suppress these papers. The Austrians
comply and expel the editor. He is persecuted by the Porte in Moldavia
and flies to Russia, where he devotes himself seriously to a long poem
in honour of the heiduks. The first part of this very long work, the
_Gorski Patnik_, had appeared at Novi Sad. It brought him considerable
fame--he was compared with Virgil--but modern readers find this poem
tedious. He likewise wrote a dissertation which established, by
comparative philology, that the Bulgars are the most direct
descendants of the Aryans, that their language is the nearest to
Sanskrit, and that the other European languages, including Greek and
Latin, are derived from it. Rakovski next appears in Belgrade, where
he leads a life of splendour; he had carriages and wonderful horses,
he was arrayed in a princely kind of uniform and was surrounded by a
kind of guard. The source of his revenues, which always seemed to
fluctuate, was never fathomed; but they may at this period have
accrued from his literary labours, which--although the present
generation smile--produced among the Bulgars a vast, patriotic pride.
At Belgrade the visionary historian and whimsical philologist becomes
a most sagacious politician. He is the first Bulgarian publicist to
talk of a free press, and he refuses, unlike many others, to seek help
from Russia only. "We must help ourselves," he cries. "As we are
Orthodox, Russia will desire to keep us under the authority of the
Greek Church; as we are Slavs, she will try to make the Western Powers
suspicious of us." When there was a wave of emigration to Russia he
frantically tried to stop it. "For you it will be suicide," he
exclaimed, "for your children assassination and for Bulgaria ruin!" He
painted Russia in appalling colours, and the would-be emigrants
repented. His personal affairs oppressed him for a time in 1862, when
he left Belgrade to the imprecations of his creditors. The Serbian
statesmen, while appreciating his exalted patriotism, would have
sooner had amongst them a more typical and stable Bulgar. Yet they
declined the Porte's request for extradition. At the beginning of 1863
Rakovski is in Athens, magnificent once more and now accompanied by an
aide-de-camp, a Montenegrin captain, whom he introduces as related to
Nikita. He is forming an alliance of the Balkan States, which,
according to his calculations, will exterminate the Turk in Europe. He
promises himself to furnish 20,000 volunteers--to start with. In the
previous year when he had planned to liberate Bulgaria with 12,000
volunteers, of whom a hundred were to be cavalry and another hundred
gunners, he could gather only 500. And now again he is disillusioned
and leaves Athens.

It was during his stay there that he met the well-known Balkan
travellers, Miss Irby and Miss Muir Mackenzie. They had been up and
down the Peninsula in 1862 and 1863, making very exhaustive inquiries
that were the basis of their book.[48] In 1917 Professor Ivan
Shishmanoff discovered two letters of Miss Muir Mackenzie's in Sofia
and published them in _Sbornik_. The first is dated May 12, and is in
German. "Since we have been here we have made the acquaintance of Mr.
Rakovski," she writes. "He has been so kind as to teach me Serbian,
during Miss Irby's illness. We like him very much, and I know of no
one among the Slavs with whose opinion we so entirely agree; because
he does not think as a Serbian or yet a Montenegrin or a Croat or a
Bulgar, but as a Slav.... I can't tell you how much I fear that their
internal divisions will make impossible the realization of a Yugoslav
country. One can't hope for much from the Greeks; they have exorbitant
ambitions and neither private nor public integrity. Those are bad
faults to find in an ally. And they speak openly of a Byzantine
Empire! And reckon that all the Southern Slavs, Serbs as well as
Bulgars, belong to them.... I hope that England will some day assure
herself that there are other Christians in the East besides the
Greeks."


THE YUGOSLAV NAME

Miss Muir Mackenzie's other letter, of June 23, is addressed to
Rakovski from Bolsover Castle, Chesterfield. It is written in French.
"We attach great importance," she says, "to the name Yugoslav. By
means of crying that word in the ears of the Greeks one will succeed
in making them understand that the Bulgars are Slavs. By means of
crying it in the ears of the European diplomats one will succeed by
making them comprehend that one cannot ignore a people of ten or
twelve million souls. By means of crying 'We are Yugoslavs,' the
Yugoslavs themselves will succeed in forgetting their little
distinctions of environment and race, and in conducting themselves as
a nation worthy of the name. Let us therefore cry that word--we will
make people speak of it sooner or later."

In June 1863 Rakovski was at Cetinje, but as he was requesting
subsidies he did not find a very sympathetic audience in Nikita.
Thence he passed to Bucharest, where he issued--for ten numbers--a
Bulgaro-Roumanian newspaper; the Bulgars in Bucharest had grown too
prosperous to be interested either in his journalistic or his military
schemes, and he found the Bulgarian colonies in Russia equally obtuse.
He was attacked by consumption while he was at work upon the
_Provisional Law for the National Bands in the Forests_--a sort of
written constitution for the heiduks, and in the intervals of his last
sufferings he wrote a history of the heiduks from the days of the
Turkish conquest. He died on October 20, 1867.

The statesmen who then governed the Great Powers may have deprecated
Rakovski as much as he deprecated them. It must have been exasperating
for those solid persons subsequently to acknowledge--if they did
so--that this unbalanced agitator weighed them very well. But the
Balkan countries were too weak; they had to suffer being thrown aside,
pushed here and there, and trampled on; for when the Great Powers came
down to the Balkans they could really not pay much attention to the
little peoples of the country and at the same time keep their eyes
upon each other. Afterwards the Balkan countries found that it was
better for them when the Great Powers fought each other there than
when they came to friendly understandings. It was profitable and
diverting for Albania when the Austrians and the Italians glowered at
each other in that silent land: it was terrible in 1878 for Bosnia and
Herzegovina when the Great Powers were on such good terms with one
another that they allowed one of themselves to make off with those two
waifs of whom he was not even the wicked uncle.

Russia had been taking a keen interest in the Balkans after Austria's
disaster in 1859 at Sadowa. It was then that Prince Gortchakoff and
his colleagues in the Ministry were inspired by the doctrines of
Katkoff, who in his _Moscow Gazette_ exercised much authority over
public opinion and even over the Tzar. Panslavism, according to
Debidour,[49] which a short time ago had been shivering in the
background, lifted its head proudly and spoke of the new era which
holy Russia was about to inaugurate, of the sacred mission that was
incumbent on the Tzar. And the sanctity was greater in that it was not
to be defined by merely mediæval but by modern language; the Tzar must
not alone protect all those who practised his religion, he must be a
patron saint who patronizes.


RUSSIA AND AUSTRIA SOW DISCORD IN THE BALKANS

To this end committees, in Moscow and in Petrograd, deliberated;
newspapers and pamphlets spread their views; agile agents propagated
them throughout the Balkans, calling on the Bulgars and the Bosniaks
to rise, promising aggrandizements to Serbia and Montenegro, spurring
on the fiery Cretans to make their revolt of 1866. All promised well.
There was to be a Balkan federation formed at the expense of Austria
and the Porte: Serbia would receive the Voivodina and Bosnia,
Montenegro would acquire Herzegovina, the Croats would at least annex
Dalmatia, and the Slovenes and the Bulgars would come naturally into
this united Yugoslavia, under Michael's sceptre. He was at the time
not only in most cordial relations with the Bulgars, but in 1867 he
began _pourparlers_ to ally himself with Greece, and he made overtures
to the new sovereign of Roumania, Charles of Hohenzollern. And after
this plan also had been nullified by Michael's death, the Russians
still continued with their task, but now they had to deal with a
convalescent Austria. It came to pass that the Bulgars found
themselves in Russia's sphere, the Serbs in that of Austria. The
little countries were thus violently pulled apart, and naturally each
of them began to stretch their hands out to the neighbouring Slavs who
were in servitude, but yet they managed to keep hand in hand with one
another. The young men, such as Karaveloff and Tzankoff, whom Prince
Michael sent to Western Europe to be educated, the young Bulgarian
priests who had studied in that branch of the Belgrade seminary which
Prince Michael opened for them, and all the Serbs and Bulgars who
considered their two countries knew that, for political and economic
reasons, they must not be kept apart. But there was always a Great
Power to frustrate these designs. Yet even after they had been flung
at each other in the fratricidal days of 1885, even after their
attempt in 1905 to found a Customs union had been vetoed, even after
some of their so-called _intelligentsia_ had done what injury they
could by harping on the limitations from which they naturally, like
the older peoples, are not exempt--nevertheless, as it was seen in
1912, when the demonstrations of delight in Belgrade and in Sofia were
touching, they are only too glad to fulfil their destiny. Since 1912
that misguided _intelligentsia_ has been given a large store of fresh
ammunition. They will go on firing and firing, while the people,
including the real _intelligentsia_, will be better engaged.


THE MACEDONIAN SLAVS UNDER THEIR GREEK CLERGY

The name of Tzankoff brings to mind a strange ecclesiastical movement.
The reader may remember how the little Macedonian town of Kukuš
carried from its church the books in Greek and how it welcomed the
Bulgarian monk who sang the Mass in Slav. The bishops and the clergy
of the Greek Church had not made themselves beloved in Macedonia,
where the population was indisputably much more Slav. Greek villages
were very scarce to the north of Lake Castoria; but after the
suppression of the two Slav Patriarchates in the eighteenth century
the only Christians who lead a dignified existence were the Greek
clergy. Among the Slav upper class there was a good deal of
Hellenization; to be a Greek was of much social value. But the people
generally stayed intact, because the schools so thoughtfully provided
by the Greeks were solely for the boys. The language spoken in the
home would therefore still be Slav. And it is not likely that the
people would have cherished their Greek clergy, even if they had been
archangels, when once the national awakening had begun. But what we
hear about this clergy is too seldom of a pleasing character. The
children of the Macedonian peasants might go into ecstasies on seeing
one of these episcopal processions, with the bishop's glorious white
horse and harness such as they had never dreamed of, with his footmen
round about him and with all those other priests, the old ones and the
young ones and the monks, and then the bishop's doctor and some other
men in spectacles, and then the bishop's cook and a few more monks.
But the Macedonian villagers who had to entertain all this rapacious
brood and pay terrific fees for everything--250 piastres for a
liturgy, 500 for a whole service, 500 for marriages among relatives up
to the seventh degree, large contributions under the name of charity,
and so forth--these had only rancour for the Church. Perhaps the
saintliest among the Greeks declined to go to Macedonia. One hears of
them so little and of people like Meletios so much. This savage person
was appointed in 1859 to be Bishop of Ochrida, although the reputation
he had left there--having previously been the coadjutor--was
atrocious. Protests and entreaties were sent to Constantinople, but
from 1860 until 1869 he stayed at Ochrida and carried on an implacable
duel with his flock. He was frequently received with hisses, sometimes
he was struck by stones, sometimes he was flung out of a church. But
he was not the man to be intimidated--a large man, with broad
shoulders, an arrogant expression and a bristling beard; they say he
had the appearance of a janissary in clerical garb. He took into his
service an Albanian bandit, through whom he terrorized the diocese. At
one time he had the young wife of a man who was away in Roumania
brought into his harem. The husband returned, asked for his wife and
succeeded in obtaining her, but after two months he was assassinated,
and the widow thought she might as well allow the bishop to console
her. The outcry was enormous; no one doubted that it was Meletios who
had given orders for the crime. A deputation of thirty went to lay
this case and numerous other transgressions before the Patriarch at
Constantinople. He would only receive five delegates, who read their
document in a plenary sitting of the Holy Synod. After they had
recited the afore-mentioned episode, one of the bishops who was
present lost patience and, "Is it really worth our while to listen to
such tales?" he asked. "If Christ spoke to the Samaritan woman, why
should not a simple bishop hold converse with a woman also?" "At last
the moment has come!" said the delegates. They departed, and at the
door they shook the dust from their feet. The Patriarch himself ran
after them. "Come back, my children!" he cried. But they were deaf to
his voice.

About forty years after the reign of Meletios there was still a Greek
bishop at Ochrida, but--this was in 1912, after the first Balkan
War--the town had also a Bulgarian and also a Serbian bishop. The
Greek ecclesiastic did not profess to administer a very large
flock--it consisted of about twelve families--but he explained that
his presence was made necessary by the ancient Greek culture. He was
there to watch over it. The local church of St. Clement and the
monasteries of SS. Zaim and Naoum are dedicated to disciples of Cyril
and Methodus, the two brothers who introduced Christianity to these
parts. They may well have recruited their disciples among the Slavs,
whose language they had learned before they set out. But whether the
old stones which the Greek bishop was guarding in 1912 are Greek or
Slav, he was better employed than most of his predecessors.


THE AFFAIR OF KUKUŠ

One of the first Macedonian villages to take an independent attitude
had been Kukuš. When it heard that some French priests were operating
at Salonica, and that if it were converted to Catholicism it would be
given a national clergy and the protection of France, the temptation
was so great that it succumbed. One of the Bulgarian democrats at
Constantinople, Dragan Tzankoff, identified himself with this idea,
not through religious motives but in order that the Porte should no
longer fear that the independence of the Catholic Bulgarian nation
would be a gain for Russia. This may sound rather far-fetched; he may
have also used Catholicism merely as a threat by which to induce the
Russians to assist in procuring the Exarchate. Tzankoff and various
other people went to Rome, where Pius IX. blessed their enterprise
and consecrated one of them, the archimandrite Sokolski, as Bishop of
the Bulgarian Uniate Church. Sokolski was a worthy, patriotic man, but
not endowed with mental attributes such as this post demanded; they
had, however, been unable to find anybody better qualified. He soon
decamped to Russia, for he was down-hearted when the Church did not
attract a greater number of disciples. His defection was a grave blow
to the cause, chiefly on account of the laughter it excited. Bulgarian
Catholicism had, however, a fair number of adherents at Constantinople
and at Kukuš.... There was at the same time another movement, more
discreetly undertaken, by American missionaries to convert the Bulgars
to the Protestant religion. These Americans, drawn by the magic name
of Greece, had come to Europe to assist that people in their fight for
freedom. They had built them schools, had printed educational books in
Greek, and had contributed in every way towards the people's moral
progress; and no sooner was the country liberated than they were
expelled. The Bulgars did not treat them in so cavalier a fashion, but
neither did they adopt Protestantism as the State religion. Sir Henry
Bulwer, the British Ambassador, recommended them rather to persevere
with Catholicism; it seemed to him that this religion, with its
authoritative organization, would be more adapted to removing the
Bulgars from the influence of Russia. The Russian Ambassador, the
disdainful Prince Lobanoff-Rostovski, was very much bored by all this
trouble that the Bulgars were giving; the Greeks were furious. One day
a Catholic Bulgar died in the French hospital at Pera, and a body of
Greeks, accompanied by clergy, wished to have the corpse handed over
to them for burial according to the Orthodox Greek rite. When they
were refused admission they attempted to enter by force, raising loud
cries and threatening to sack the whole place. In the end they were
dispersed by a detachment of French sailors....


THE EXARCHATE IS ESTABLISHED

These religious disputes between Greek and Bulgar were agreeable to
the Porte, which encouraged the Bulgars to persevere with the
Catholic plan. Russia continued to be very embarrassed, not wishing to
make a permanent enemy either of the Greek Church or of the Bulgarian
people. Finally the Bulgarian efforts to secure a national Church met
with reward. The Turkish authorities--Fuad Pasha, the Grand Vizier,
being an enlightened man--did not persist in the impracticable plan
that this Church should be in communion with Rome. One of the
consequences of the establishment of their autocephalous Church was
that many of the Bulgarian Catholics at Constantinople and Kukuš
abandoned that religion. The Vatican complained--and not
unreasonably--that it had been fooled. The Russians are generally
given much credit for this Bulgarian success, but although they
participated in the negotiations--and their Ambassador, the
resourceful Count Ignatieff,[50] would make it seem that they were
gratified with the result--their situation was so delicate that they
preferred to play for safety. When the news was brought to Serbia it
gave rise to great rejoicings, for the Exarchate was the charter of
liberty for the Macedonian Slavs. No one dreamed at this time that, on
account of Macedonia, Serbs and Bulgars would be some day flying at
each other's throat.


1867: AUSTRIA DELIVERS THE SLAVS TO THE MAGYARS

The Southern Slavs had recently been shown that if they waited in the
hope that others would assist them to improve their fortunes they
would have to have a monumental patience. When Austria, after her
defeat at the hand of the Prussians, was flung out of the German
federation, she availed herself of the services of a German, Count
Frederick Beust, to put her house in order. His negotiations with
Hungary produced the compromise, the _Ausgleich_, of 1867. This
Constitution, which made them independent of each other as regards
internal matters, bade their Slavs prepare themselves to lose all
shreds of independence. The Serbs of the Banat and Bačka, as well
as the Roumanians of Transylvania and the Slovaks, were delivered to
the Magyars without any guarantee that their language or their
nationality would be respected. "Look!" said the Magyars in after
years, when travellers came to see what they had done, "we have a
language law, evolved by Deak, which lays down that everybody in the
law courts has the right to use his mother-tongue." The traveller had
been wondering what unusual people lived in Hungary, for he had seen a
peasant choose precisely that time when a train was due to come and
quarrel about something with the booking clerk. How was the traveller
to learn that the non-Magyar peasant wished to buy a ticket for his
native village, whose name had just been Magyarized, and that the
clerk refused to sell a ticket except the peasant used a name he did
not know? And when the peasant had walked home he might see in the
village register that he who had been Saba was now Shebek and that his
friend Ziva, who could speak no word of Magyar, was now Vitaljos; and
that the children of poor Vitaljos, in order that they should not
suffer from their father's handicap, were not confining their
education to ordinary subjects, but were learning the Magyar language
for seventeen hours every week. Well, how was your traveller to know
that if a person used his own tongue in the law courts, which was very
probably the tongue of everyone who lived there save a handful of
officials, one of these officials who was accidentally in court would
say he was acquainted with that person's language? The judge would
take his word for it and he would start interpreting. When the
Hungarians came to deal with the Croats they were careful to give
them, for the world's eye, a great deal of autonomy. Strossmayer,
assisted by the historian Rački, had in April 1866 led a deputation
to Buda-Pest when it was clear that extreme divergencies existed
between the Croats and the Magyars. Among other Croatian demands was
one that Rieka should no longer be the scene of Magyar intrigues. As
yet the town's importance was not great: in 1869 she had only 17,884
inhabitants and the total of her exports and imports did not exceed
150,000 tons. But everybody knew that by the building of a direct line
to Croatia and to the valleys of the Save, the Drave and the Danube
there would come an era of prosperity. The Magyars had allied
themselves with the Autonomist party, showing them what great
advantages the town would reap if it were joined to Hungary. Would not
Hungary, for instance, be able to manipulate the railway freights?
There had been constant bickerings between the Croats and the
Autonomist party, so that Strossmayer's deputation asked that the
Magyars should refrain from giving to the latter their financial and
moral support. But the Magyars had no such intention. "One should try
to convince everyone," said Rački, "that in national politics the
Magyars and ourselves stand at the Antipodes. We see in the Slav and
Yugoslav solidarity the most powerful guarantee for our national
future, whereas the Magyars see in it the tomb of their nationality.
We consider the liberation of the East as a condition of a happier
future, while the Magyars regard it as the beginning of their absolute
ruin or at least as the end of their aspirations for the sole
dominion. The idea of a Yugoslav State, arising in Croatia or in
Bosnia or Serbia, would always find in Hungary a most determined foe."
It was thus improbable that any satisfactory arrangement would be
made, particularly as the Austrians, oblivious to all that
Jellačić had done for them, were quite prepared to give their
erstwhile enemies, the Magyars, a free hand. And what the Magyars did
was to confer upon Croatia this autonomy for educational and legal and
religious matters, while they reserved financial, railway, fiscal and
commercial questions, military legislation and the laws relating to
the roads and rivers in which both were interested--all these subjects
they reserved for the Parliament at Buda-Pest, in which, of course,
the Croats formed an impotent minority. Francis Joseph on May 1, 1867,
sent a message to Zagreb in which he stated that "the pourparlers with
the Kingdom of Hungary, which to him was always dear and faithful, had
led to the desired results." He trusted that the Croats would be
represented at his coronation at Buda-Pest. Strossmayer was ordered to
bring this about; he went instead to the Paris Exhibition. He and the
National party prepared themselves for a severe struggle. But now
Baron Levin Rauch, of infamous memory, was nominated as Ban. He at
once altered the electoral laws, so that the National party came back
with only fourteen deputies. If any one in Western Europe thought
about the Croats it was with the traditional aversion for the way in
which they had behaved to the most noble Kossuth. This was years
before the time when Dr. Seton-Watson, as it may interest him to hear,
defeated the Magyarophil candidate at an election in the town of
Ogulin. The bright idea occurred to somebody to whisper it abroad that
Dr. Seton-Watson would arrive that day in order to make notes of the
election for the British Press. With Rauch's obedient majority a
compromise, the _Nagodba_, was arranged with Hungary. The terms of
this, subordinating Croatia economically and financially to Buda-Pest,
are what one would expect; the chief novelty concerns Rieka, as to
which port no agreement had been reached.


THE "KRPITSA"

On the Croat text of the _Nagodba_, which had received the Emperor's
sanction on November 8, a piece of paper, the famous "Krpitsa," was
glued; and on this paper were the words Rieka knew of old--_Corpus
separatum sacræ coronæ Hungaricæ_. They had been put forward by the
Hungarian delegates and approved by the Emperor on November 17. This
rather melodramatic affair would have been thought worthy of at any
rate a few lines by most of us if we had written a whole book, nay two
books, about Rieka. But our friend Mr. Edoardo Susmel glides, as
gracefully as possible, over it. In his _Fiume Italiana_ he is as _peu
communicatif_ as a carp. His other book,[51] written in French,
simply and beautifully says of this law of 1868 that it is "a precious
heritage transmitted from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in
which period there was condensed"--or shall we say made
palpable?--"the spirit which is jealous of the municipal liberties."
"Down to this day," says he, "Rieka is in complete possession of her
charter. Rieka has to-day still got her great charter. This
constitutional charter ..." and so on and so on. But these modern
coryphées of Rieka and Dalmatia are so forgetful.


RIEKA'S HISTORY, AS TWO PEOPLE SEE IT

Mr. Susmel begins by saying that the origins of the Italianity of
Rieka lose themselves in the story of Rome. He knows--none
better--that the Romans came to these parts. They disappeared--but of
course one can't put in every detail. Anyhow, they left an arch, a lot
of coins, some vases, etc.; and a few of these are depicted in Mr.
Susmel's book. What a relief it must have been to innumerable people
as they turned his pages and discovered that he had forgotten to
include the illustrations of our Roman Wall, of the Pont du Gard and
of the glorious aqueduct that traverses Segovia! From the time of the
"Krpitsa" onwards a regular colonization began. Italians were urged to
come from their own country--but if Mr. Hilaire Belloc, who studied
the question on the spot, is accurate in his diagnosis that Fiume is
Italian "with that intensity of feeling bred by alien rule and the
sudden victorious liberation therefrom" (_Land and Water_, May 29,
1919), it certainly does seem a little strange that the Italians
should think in this way of the Magyars who invited them and were so
good to them. They were told, no doubt, by the Magyars that the Croats
would not hurt them, that the city council would always be Italian,
that if the saucy Croats asked for schools--as indeed their numbers
entitled them to do--well, they would receive no reply. ("Show me a
single Croat school!" cried the Italian mayor triumphantly to me in
1919.) The Magyars spent vast sums on the harbour, making the other
little harbours of Croatia obsolete, and they were not going to lose
their grip of the town for want of proper legislation. They were
surprised that more "regnicoli" (Italians from Italy) did not respond;
but the renegades made up for them. "Passionate and justified," said
Mr. Hilaire Belloc in 1919,[52] is Italian feeling with respect to
Fiume. But this writer, who says he travelled to the Adriatic with a
view to ascertaining the real facts, did not altogether waste his
time, since one of his two adjectives is quite correct. With regard to
the renegades no questions were ever asked, if only one helped to keep
Rieka from the Croats, if, for example, on a voting paper for the
Croatian Diet one put the word "nessuno" (no one). Mr. Susmel, I see,
says that the Diet's continued invitation to the town that it should
send its deputies to Zagreb was a display of "incredible obstinacy."


AND THE SLOVENES ARE COERCED

The _Ausgleich_ was of ill-omen to the Slav subjects of Hungary. It
was not much more auspicious for the Slovenes, Istrians and
Dalmatians. The Slavs seem to have been the Habsburgs' nightmare. Why
the million and a quarter of Slovenes--people who do not approach the
Basques, for instance, in pugnacity--should be the butt of everlasting
coercion and repression may seem inexplicable. When the
German-Austrians of Triest, even after the Italians in Italy had begun
to claim the town, allied themselves with the Triest Italians "to
fight," as they declared, "the common enemy," it can surely not have
been these quiet Slovenes who had won for themselves by great industry
a place in the town which is situated in their province. The "common
enemy" to whom the German-Austrians referred must have been Russia.
And so the Southern Slavs of the Balkans and of the Adriatic owed part
of the bad treatment they received not to their own vices but to the
organizing virtues which their larger brother was supposed to have.

    FOOTNOTES:

    [Footnote 36: _Memorie per la storia degli arvenimenti che
    seguirono in Dalmazia la caduta della Republica veneta_, by
    G. Cattalinich, 1841.]

    [Footnote 37: This is perpetuated by the initial letters of
    the saying "Samo sloga Srbina spasava" ("Only in the union of
    Serbs is salvation"), which are placed round the cross in
    Serbia's coat of arms.]

    [Footnote 38: Cf. _La Dalmatie de 1797-1815_, by the Abbé
    Paul Pisani. Paris, 1893.]

    [Footnote 39: His fame as a teacher was such that several
    towns entreated him to settle in their midst. In 1845 the
    inhabitants of Stara Zagora sent him this curious letter:
    "When Philip, King of Macedonia, invited Aristotle to be the
    tutor of his son, he wrote to him: 'I am happy, in the first
    place, because God has given me a son, and, secondly, because
    this son was born in your time....' And we also, we thank
    God, firstly, because it has been granted to us to found a
    school, and, secondly, because we know that under your
    direction it will be a real school. That is why we supplicate
    and pray that you will come to us and be our teacher."]

    [Footnote 40: Smail Aga, Vice-Governor of Herzegovina, had
    earned for himself the greatest detestation of the
    Montenegrins, whom he harried, and of his own unhappy
    subjects. In August 1840 he was attacked by a small band of
    heroes, men of Montenegro and of Herzegovina. He and a large
    number of his men were killed. A translation of this
    celebrated poem was made by Mr. J. W. Wiles at Salonika, and
    printed there, under difficult circumstances, entirely by
    Serbian refugees.]

    [Footnote 41: Cf. _Fiume Italiana_. Rome, 1919.]

    [Footnote 42: According to the census of 1857 the figures
    were: Serbs, 452,500; Roumanians, 414,900; Germans, 394,100;
    Magyars, 256,100; Jews, 12,500; Gipsies, 600.]

    [Footnote 43: Their German origin had become so completely
    obliterated that they no longer spoke anything but Croat. It
    is curious in this connection to note that Kossuth, the
    champion of Magyarism, was of Slav blood; that Rieger, the
    Czech leader, was of German blood; and that Conscience, chief
    of the Flemish movement, had a French father.]

    [Footnote 44: Cf. Seton-Watson's _The Southern Slav
    Question_. London, 1911.]

    [Footnote 45: Cf. _Letters of Count Cavour_, edited by Gl.
    Chiala, vol. iv. pp. 139-140.]

    [Footnote 46: This lady, the Princess Julia, subsequently
    married the Duke of Aremberg. She died in February 1919 in
    Vienna at the age of eighty-eight. In the early sixties she
    came on a mission to England to enlist sympathy for Serbia's
    final struggle for independence. Much to her annoyance she
    found that it was necessary to ask through the Turkish
    Embassy for an audience with Queen Victoria. However, the
    Ambassador was a very affable person, who completely
    mollified the Princess. It was to her that Palmerston made
    one of his famous puns. Her dress caught in a door and he
    stepped forward with the words: "Princesse, la Porte est sur
    votre chemin pour vous empêcher d'avancer."]

    [Footnote 47: As a matter of fact he was walking with a girl
    called Catharine, also a relative, a lame girl more
    remarkable for wit and wisdom than for physical beauty. She
    and Michael are celebrated in one of Serbia's most famous
    songs. There has been a great deal of speculation as to his
    assassins, some maintaining that they were Austrian agents,
    others holding that it was the work of the rival
    Karageorgevič dynasty. A certain Radovanovič who settled down
    in Karlovci--he was there at any rate till 1895--was most
    probably an Austrian instrument in this affair; he in his
    turn making use of Austrian police for the actual deed. He
    was wont to say that he knew who were the murderers; but
    since he was looked upon as a mere tool, his fellow-Serbs of
    Karlovci did not molest him. Yet he never frequented a
    Serbian café. He was a travelled, pretty well-educated man;
    with the Austrian officials he was on very friendly terms,
    and the source of his money was never discovered.]

    [Footnote 48: _The Turks, the Greeks and the Slavons: Travels
    in the Slavonic Provinces of Turkey-in-Europe._ London, 1867.
    The second edition of this book appeared with a preface by
    Gladstone.]

    [Footnote 49: Cf. his _Histoire diplomatique de l'Europe_.]

    [Footnote 50: The promulgation was a surprise to him; it was
    also a defeat, as he had aimed at a direct understanding
    between Greeks and Bulgars and not at a solution which left
    the Porte as arbitrator between these two Christian races.
    However, he would not acknowledge that he had been beaten.
    "He thought it more intelligent to recognize the _fait
    accompli_ and not to let his dissatisfaction be visible,"
    says Prince George Troubetzkoi, the distinguished diplomat
    who explored the archives of the Russian Embassy at
    Constantinople. In reply to his telegram announcing the
    promulgation of the firman, Gortchakoff, the Prime Minister,
    cabled that "an adjustment of this awkward question and one
    that would not break the links between the Bulgarian
    community and the Œcumenical Patriarchate would be a great
    alleviation, whereof the credit would be mostly yours." The
    Russians repudiated the Exarchate publicly and they are not
    now, as are the Serbs, in communion with the Bulgars. For
    example, when the Bulgarian bishops in Macedonia, after the
    troubles following the first Balkan War, went to Russia in
    order to state their case, they were taken to a monastery and
    not allowed to participate in the religious offices.]

    [Footnote 51: _Le droit italique de Fiume._ Bologna, 1919.]

    [Footnote 52: In _Land and Water_, June 5, 1919.]




IV

THE SHIFTING SANDS OF MACEDONIA

WHAT ARE THE MACEDONIAN SLAVS?--THE RIFT CAUSED BY RELIGION--VERSATILITY
OF THESE MACEDONIAN SLAVS--HOW FOREIGNERS HAVE STIRRED UP
TROUBLE--AUSTRIAN, RUSSIAN AND TURKISH MANŒUVRES--THE DEPLORABLE
MILAN--NIKITA THE COMEDIAN--THE GREAT STROSSMAYER--RELIGIOUS
DISPUTES BETWEEN SERBS AND ROUMANIANS--THE BURDEN OF THE OBRENOVIĆ--A
HAPPY ADVENT--AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN WRATH--THEIR MONTENEGRIN FRIEND--AUSTRIA
GIVES HOSTAGES TO HISTORY--THE DREAMS OF AN OLD REALIST--VERY HIGH
POLITICS--THE RIDDLE OF SARAJEVO--THE MISERABLE MACEDONIANS--FEROCITIES
OF EDUCATION--THE STORM IS PAST.


A wealthy gentleman of Belgrade, one George Weiffert, who brews
admirable beer, is said some years ago to have sworn an oath that if
his wished-for ice, that was strangely lacking, should appear by Saint
Sava's Day (January 27, New Style) he would adopt this old archbishop
as the patron saint of his family. Another Teuton, of Hebraic origin,
whom I met at Zaječa, had placed himself and his house under the
protection of the Archangel Michael, whose festival is on November 21.
The Roumanians of eastern Serbia seem, all of them, to have assumed
this custom which the Serbs call the "slava," and those inhabitants,
say of Pirot, who did not consider themselves Serbs at the time of
their annexation would gradually fall into line with their neighbours
and select a saint, if only because the annual "slava" celebration is
a day of tremendous hospitality, when the peasant is glad to squander
his savings in the entertainment even of persons unknown to him. And
those who are in the habit of attending "slavas" naturally feel that
they must have a "slava" of their own. It may also have happened in
Macedonia that a traveller has been told by the very adaptable
peasants how Saint Nicholas or Saint Alimpija is their house saint, a
commitment which the holy one has but lately had thrust upon him. One
would therefore do well to look for some other test, and not to follow
those people who roundly assert that the man who honours the "slava,"
and no other man, is a veritable Serb.


WHAT ARE THE MACEDONIAN SLAVS?

If, for example, one wishes to decide whether a given Macedonian Slav
is a Serb or a Bulgar--many thousands have been called and have, quite
happily, called themselves both--we must use a more scientific method.
Some investigators, such as Vateff, have made measurements that are
not without value; others, such as Djerić and Shishmanoff, have
published good monographs on the Serbian and Bulgarian name. We have
had some learned dissertations on the language of Macedonia, as to
whether the Slav dialects approach more nearly the Serbian or the
Bulgarian literary language. But this question remains unanswered,
owing to the imperfect manner in which the grammatical and syntaxical
peculiarities of the Macedonian dialects have, as yet, been examined.
Some people have argued that as the Bulgarian peculiarity of the
postponed article is also found in Macedonia it follows that the
province really is Bulgarian. But as the postponed article is found in
a wide zone, which extends from the Albanian shores to those of the
Black Sea, this argument loses in strength, for how can Roumania be
called Bulgarian? Very possibly before the Slavs arrived that zone was
inhabited by another people who left this characteristic behind them,
though they left no documents. It is a logical hypothesis. And
Barbulescu, the Professor of Slav Philology in the University of
Jassy, said in 1912 that "the Serbs have just as many reasons for
asserting that the Macedonian is a Serbian language as the Bulgars
have to deny it." As it was in the Middle Ages, so it is now; the
mediæval language used to oscillate between the two, and it is
sometimes impossible to tell whether an old Macedonian Slav document
is Bulgarian or Serbian.... When we come to the ethnologists we find
they have only written books which deal with certain parts of
Macedonia. They have confessed that, generally speaking, it is
impossible to say whether a man is a Serb, a Bulgar or a
Serbo-Bulgar. These Macedonians were for centuries at such a distance
from the other Slavs and were so thoroughly neglected that they lost
their national consciousness, an attribute which many thousands of
them, in the days of the vast, loose empires of Dušan and Simeon,
never possessed. Sir Charles Eliot, in his excellent book _Turkey in
Europe_ (London, 1900), says that it is not easy to distinguish Serb
and Bulgar beyond the boundaries of their respective countries. He
divides the Macedonian Slavs into pure Slavs, Slavized Bulgars and
pure Slavs influenced by Slavized Bulgars: "all three categories," he
says, "have been subjected to a strong and often continuous Greek
influence, to say nothing of the Turks and the inconspicuous Vlachs,"
so that in his opinion it is rash to make sharp divisions among a
people who have thus acted and reacted on one another. A large
proportion of the Macedonians[53] have no knowledge of the race to
which their ancestors belonged; and one is brought to the conclusion
that it is much wiser not to use for Macedonia the two words, Serb and
Bulgar, but to say that these Slavs became either Exarchists (in which
case they were commonly called Bulgars) or Patriarchists (who were
called Serbs). Basil Kanchov, a Macedonian, who is the most accurate
in giving the numbers of the Slav population of the old provinces of
Turkey, divides them not into races but religions. It is, of course, a
mistake to think that on the institution of the Exarchate it merely
received the allegiance of those Macedonians whose origin was more or
less Bulgarian. Thousands of Slavs who were, or believed themselves to
be, of Serbian blood passed over to the schism with the sole object of
obtaining for their Church a Slav liturgy. There was little reason for
them to hesitate, since at that time the names of Serb and Bulgar
implied no national differentiation, but were used to designate the
brothers of two different provinces. We find then that the Macedonian
Slavs, vaguely Serbs and vaguely Bulgars, passed pretty
indiscriminately, and of course without the least apprehension of the
future, into the Exarchist Church, or else remained under the Greek
Patriarch. Exarchists and Patriarchists were found in the same family:
thus at Tetovo the priest Missa Martinoff was an Exarchist and
president of the Bulgarian community, while his brother Momir
Martinović was a Patriarchist, and president of the Serbian
community in the same town. Stavro, a well-known watchmaker at
Skoplje, was a Patriarchist, whereas a brother of his, also at
Skoplje, was an Exarchist priest. Ivko, a farmer at the village of
Poboujie and his eight nearest relatives were Exarchists, his other
relatives and all the rest of the village were Patriarchists. Many
similar examples could be given.


THE RIFT CAUSED BY RELIGION

One may observe by the sequence of events in one of the Macedonian
towns, what was the dire effect of this dividing of the Slavs into two
religious bodies. Ghevgeli, a town which before the War had about 6000
inhabitants, will provide a fair illustration. In the middle of the
nineteenth century the church service was in Greek and there was no
school, but the Slavs were indifferent--and learning was regarded as a
rather praiseworthy accomplishment for the priest. Now and then some
one would travel to where the Serbian or the Bulgarian language could
be heard in church and on his return to Ghevgeli be discontented with
the Greek. This feeling was fanned by certain agitators from outside;
and ultimately a Slav service was introduced, being celebrated in the
same church as the Greek service and by the same priest. As he was
unable to read a Slav language, the words were written for him with
Greek letters. One should mention, by the way, that no Greeks were to
be found at Ghevgeli--only Slavs with a few Turks and five or six
Jews. A Slav school was also opened about 1860, with a teacher whose
salary was paid by the parents; he used Slav church books and taught
arithmetic and folk-songs. The Greek bishop started a school, but with
no great success, and although it went on until 1913 it was patronized
by fewer and fewer children.

The Slav service in the church became after a time Exarchist; as a
sequel to which, to the dissatisfaction of many of the people, it was
called "Bulgarian." The objectors had been to Serbia and sympathized
with that country, and at Ghevgeli they were supported by about half
the population. But the Bulgars were then more favourably viewed by
the Turkish authorities.... A Bulgarian school was likewise opened a
few years before the Serbian, which began in 1882. By this time the
Slavs, largely owing to external pressure, were not content to have
two separate schools; they were the keenest rivals, and the proprietor
of the Serbian school, Risto Naumović, was killed for no other
reason in 1883. His successor, one Bečirović, who is still
alive, was threatened that he would be shot within twenty-four hours,
but his valiant young son--who was then a pupil at the school--found
the komitadji chieftain who had uttered this threat and slew him. So
both the schools continued, together with a Turkish, a Greek, a
Roumanian and a Catholic school. The Catholic friars were supported by
Austria and France; the Roumanian establishment, which was visited by
not more than twenty children from the neighbourhood, was maintained
by Roumania--the teacher being a native of Bucharest. In fact, there
was a good deal of propaganda which between the Serbs and the Bulgars
became violent.

What can be said for the Exarchists?... Some years ago the Albanians
in the region of Monastir were asking to be inscribed on the books of
the American Church, for they thought in that way to obtain the
benefits of American citizenship. They made no pretence of having been
impressed by other doctrines. A Church was in their eyes a sort of
naturalization bureau. And when the Exarchists were rejoicing in their
new-found strength and perceiving that this Church of theirs might be
a corner-stone of a Great Bulgaria, they were so completely carried
away that they bestowed an all-too-scant attention on the methods
which they brought to bear. These methods of the enthusiastic
Exarchists were altogether deplorable and succeeded in alienating not
only the Patriarchist Slavs whom they freely murdered, but even in
many cases the very Exarchists, who came to dislike the komitadji
bands, whom they were required to shelter and to feed and to assist
with a subscription to their funds. "Still more," says a Bulgarian
proverb--"still more than if you have a boat on the sea or a Roumanian
wife, are you certain to sleep ill if you have a property in
Macedonia." As year after year went by and the komitadji men appeared
to be doing very little beyond terrorizing the country, those who
supported them began to frown. No guerilla leader presented a
balance-sheet, and it was generally known that the famous Boris
Sarafoff allowed himself, each year, a few months in Paris. This, he
said, was due to him after his arduous time in the Macedonian
mountains. More and more displeased were the Exarchist peasants--the
Macedonian Slav is a very thrifty soul--and in the Great War one had
the spectacle of men who called themselves Bulgars and concealed their
sons, lest they be taken into the Bulgarian army. "If it pleases the
Bulgars," they said, "let them come and liberate us."


VERSATILITY OF THESE MACEDONIAN SLAVS

If the Exarchist leaders had gone about their business with more
prudence--but how could one expect political sagacity among a people
which had not only been for centuries under the shadow of the Horses'
Tails, but which at the time when the Turk appeared was no whit his
superior in civilization? Very possibly the Balkan Slavs would in
those five hundred years have turned in disgust from Vlad the Impaler
and other exponents of Byzantine culture, if it had not been for the
Turk, who ignored his raia's potential moral progress and did not
think of regulating his natural cruelty. If the Exarchist leaders had
been born different, then Macedonia might easily have become--as now,
one hopes, it will at last become--a Yugoslav bond of union, instead
of an apple of discord. "I used to be a Bulgar and now I am a
Serb,"[54] said a man with whom I was walking one day in Monastir,
"and so long as I have work," he said, "I shall be perfectly
contented." How many Macedonians ought to echo his words! At Resan I
stayed at the house of an old gentleman called Lapchević and in
Sofia I had previously met his brother, whose name was Lapchev and who
was Minister of War. Until 1868 there was at Resan only a Greek
school, so that the elder brother's education left him merely a
Macedonian Slav, who could have become with equal facility a Serb or a
Bulgar; the younger brother had the advantage of a Bulgarian school,
but the disadvantage of having his Slav nationality narrowed down into
that of Bulgaria. These two brothers should set an example, renounce
the name of Serb and Bulgar, and call themselves simply Yugoslav. At
Resan the Serbian authorities are certainly trying to smooth away
these wretched divisions. No longer, as in 1890, does the little town
support half a dozen schoolmasters who are nothing if not Serb or
Bulgarian. Now the Serbs of Resan have retained not only the priests
who were in office during the Bulgarian occupation, but the male and
female Bulgarian teachers. In the winter of 1869 Ljuben Karaveloff
started his paper, the _Svoboda_, which was in opposition to those
Bulgars who dreamed of their country being freed by Russia and placed
under a Russian protectorate. Karaveloff's hopes were centred on an
independent revolutionary movement, and the Bulgars, he urged, could
best achieve their political, as distinct from their ecclesiastical,
freedom by associating themselves with the other Balkan peoples and
especially with the Serbs. "What is required," he said, "of the Balkan
Christians is union and union and union."


HOW FOREIGNERS HAVE STIRRED UP TROUBLE

If you stand, soon after daybreak, looking at the white façade of
Sofia's enormous, Russian-built cathedral, you will perceive that
whether accidentally or by some architectural _tour de force_, the
upper part is a majestic face, the face of some old god, benevolent
and quite implacable. The Bulgars never would deny that Russia
liberated them and showered on them every kind of gift. But woe be it
to them if in return they did not forward Russia's purposes. Hundreds
of young Bulgars were received in Russia and gratuitously educated;
the Church books which the Bulgars used, their ecclesiastical
vestments and sacred utensils had usually come to them as gifts from
Russia; both before and after the political emancipation Russia's
literature was most assiduously studied. And a pious care was taken of
the places around Plevna that were memorable for a feat of Russian
arms; the people down to this day speak about "The Holy Places." All
was well until the death of Alexander II. No, all was not well--for
the Russians had, in their design to make the Bulgars their devoted
Balkan agents, given them by the Treaty of San Stefano a vast
territory which in gratitude they were expected to administer for
Russia's greater glory. Yes, it may be said, but Russia was using the
best available maps, and these indicated that Macedonia was
Bulgarian.... Perhaps we have already shown sufficiently that the
Macedonian Slavs are devoid of an innate national sense, but that
they have Bulgar or Serb sentiments which are, for the most part,
imported, thrust upon them or created by the propagandists. Very
rapidly the Macedonian Slavs transform themselves into Serbs or
Bulgars; according to circumstances they will or will not be faithful
to the nationality which they have chosen. And in their wavering they
have thousands of precedents--towards 1400, for example, a Slav
chieftain called Bogoja attacked the town of Arta, and in order to
gain an easier victory announced, the chroniclers tell us, that he was
of Serb, Albanian, Bulgar and Greek descent. One must therefore be a
little dubious of maps which ascribe the Macedonian Slavs to any
particular nationality. Much more than the rival maps, it was
Kiepert's that was used by the Russians and others for determining the
Bulgaria of San Stefano. "It is the best map that we know of," said
Bismarck, and Kiepert's ethnographical statements were completely
adopted by British scientists and diplomats at the time of the Berlin
Congress. No doubt a well-equipped foreigner could obtain more exact
ethnographical results in Macedonia than equally gifted Serb or Bulgar
observers. But not one of the travellers whose observations Kiepert
used for his map was acquainted with the Serb or the Bulgar language,
nor had any one of them travelled for purposes of research; hence it
is not surprising that none of them perceived that the Macedonian
Slavs have no sense of nationality and that "Bulgar" is not used there
as a national term. In former as well as in recent times the
Macedonian Slavs have readily abandoned one name for the other, the
temporary predominance of either depending solely on the conquests,
political circumstances and various events, internal and external,
which give rise to certain sentiments and instincts among this people,
easily transforming them into Serb or Bulgar aspirations. It seems
clear that Serbia's existence as an independent State for a good many
decades before Bulgaria was freed would render the name of Serb more
disagreeable to the Turk; it is therefore not astonishing that in
Macedonia under the Turks one discarded the Serb name in favour of the
Bulgar. Without dwelling upon the more or less valuable remarks which
were made by priests and monks and Turkish geographers and French
explorers and German doctors from the sixteenth to the eighteenth
centuries and from which we can at least deduce that the Slav
inhabitants of southern Macedonia were not fanatically constant to the
Bulgar name, it would appear that in the nineteenth century the
earlier deliverance of Serbia and, above all, the foundation of the
Exarchate caused the Bulgar name to become the more popular. The Serbs
were looked upon by Turkey as a revolutionary element, while the
Bulgars aimed at an independent Slav Church within the limits of the
Turkish boundaries. It is unnecessary to add that after Bulgaria's
deliverance and her annexation of Eastern Roumelia, and especially
after the rebellious movements in Macedonia, which had the moral if
not the official encouragement of the Principality, there was less
eagerness on the part of the Slavs to let their Turkish masters think
that they were Bulgars. But in the period preceding the publication of
Kiepert's map the Bulgar name was the more fashionable with Macedonian
peasants. And by giving practical effect to this map in the Treaty of
San Stefano the Russians did a huge disservice to the Bulgars. In the
first place, they aroused in this young people such an exhilaration
that the subsequent annulling of the Treaty at the hands of the Great
Powers would naturally leave a rankling disappointment. Also the
relations between Serbs and Bulgars were not rendered easier by the
chief Slav nation coming down so heavily upon the Bulgar side in what
necessitated a most delicate and scientific handling. Three Russian
ethnographical maps on Macedonia were issued by the Petrograd
_Slavyansko Obštčestvo_, which worked for Pan-Slavism and
assisted Slav students. These maps--one of them is described by
Kntchev, the chauvinistic Bulgar, as "giving the Bulgars somewhat more
territory than they in reality occupy"--were lamentably superficial.
While remaining unnoticed in the rest of Europe they exercised an
unfortunate influence on the Balkan educated classes, who believed
that, according to tradition, the potent "elder brother" would be
anxious to decide righteously the disputes between the small Balkan
nations. These maps were, no doubt wrongly, looked upon as the plans
of Russian policy, and on this account the Bulgars became still more
unapproachable for an understanding or for united work; it appeared
to the Macedonian _intelligentsia_, whose hope was to see their
country set free, that Bulgaria was the land which fortune and the
Russians favoured. Except the foundation of the Bulgarian Exarchate in
Macedonia and the creation of Bulgaria at San Stefano, perhaps nothing
contributed so much to the estrangement of the Balkan nations as these
maps; for it was long before one could be persuaded that this Slav
society had produced the maps through ignorance and false information,
so that, as Professor Cvijić remarks,[55] "the educated classes in
Serbia were as culpable for the pernicious effects of these maps as
were the Russian authors themselves." And Serbs and Bulgars had good
reason to complain of the manner in which Russia treated them.


AUSTRIAN, RUSSIAN AND TURKISH MANŒUVRES

While Bulgaria came from the San Stefano peace dazzled with jewels
that she was not to clasp, the Serbs continued walking in the shadows
which had, from the time of Michael's death, been gradually falling
round them. No practical result was obtained from a letter which the
Serbian Government ordered their representative to read to the Greek
Patriarch, pointing out that only such parishes should be held as
unquestionably Bulgarian which had formerly been subject to the
Patriarchate of Trnovo, even as those of the Peć Patriarchate were
undoubtedly Serbian, while those of Ochrida were disputable, since
that region had belonged in turn to both of them. Small advantage
accrued to the Serbs from their fidelity to the Greek Patriarch: in
Macedonia they came to be regarded by many Slavs as foes to the new
national Church, while the only desire of the Greeks was to use them
for their own purposes. "There are no Serbs in this parish," wrote a
Bishop when the Patriarch commanded him to permit the Serbian priests
now and then to celebrate a Slav service, "there are no Serbs but
merely Greeks" (in which official terminology the Serbs were included)
"and hellenized Vlachs." ... The Serbs about this time were most
unfortunate in warfare. Prince Milan tried to secure, without coming
to blows, from the Sultan what he expected that his victorious armies
would give him, namely, the administration of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
After the failure of the 1874 crops the peasants of Herzegovina and
then of Bosnia were driven to desperation by the demands of the
tax-gatherers. Miss Irby's eloquent description[56] tells us of the
terrible state of these provinces during the years that preceded the
outbreak. Taxes of one-eighth were demanded by the Governor, one-third
or one-half by the Beg, taxes for exemption from military service,
taxes for pigs, cattle and everything "you have or have not." One
informant said, "I have seen men driven into pigsties and shut up
there in cold and hunger till they paid; hung from the rafters with
their heads downwards in the smoke, until they disclosed where their
little stores were hidden. I have known them hung from trees and water
poured down them in the freezing cold; I have known them chained
barefoot and forced to run behind the Beg's carriage...." The
provinces revolted and vengeance was wrecked upon them. More than a
third of the population fled the country. Sir Arthur Evans[57]
describes the refugees as a "squalid, half-naked swarm of women and
children and old men, with faces literally eaten away with hunger and
disease.... After seeing every moral mutilation," he goes on to say,
"that centuries of tyranny could inflict ... who can go away without a
feeling of despair for the present generation of refugee Bosnia?" The
people of Montenegro and Serbia were profoundly stirred by the
miseries of their brothers. But Milan vacillated, and when finally he
took up arms it was without success, and five weeks after the peace
signature Russia began the Turkish War, one of whose necessary
antecedents was the recognition by Russia that the Austrians were not
to be hampered in Bosnia-Herzegovina. (After the Treaty of Berlin had
placed the two provinces under Austria's administration it is said
that Andrássy, on his return from Berlin, remarked to Francis Joseph
that the door of the Balkans was now open to His Majesty. But the
Russian delegate, Prince Gortchakoff, had prophesied to Andrássy that
Bosnia-Herzegovina would prove the Empire's grave.) One effect
produced by this incursion of the Austrian eagles was a serious
divergence between the Croats and the Serbs. By historic and by ethnic
rights the provinces, so the Serbs argued, should be theirs when once
the Turk had ceased to rule. The Croats, laying special emphasis on
the religious question, were for justifying Austria's occupation. The
Catholic Slav clergy, unlike the Orthodox, ranged themselves with the
great Catholic Power; while Croat politicians of the school of
Starčević invoked other historic and ethnic sanctions in their
endeavour to found, under the name of "Great Croatia," a State uniting
all the Yugoslav lands of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Thus the
Serbs and their Croatian brothers were acutely in conflict. Never,
said the Serbs, would that "Trialism" come to pass, for the Magyars
would veto the formation of a Yugoslav State within the Empire, having
a population roughly equal in numbers to its own. We Yugoslavs have
nothing to hope for, said the Serbs, except from ourselves, and, being
divided, we are ruining our common interests.... From yet another
quarter was a storm-wind blowing on the Serbs. The Russian volunteers
and officers had taken back with them highly unfavourable impressions
as to the capabilities of the Serbian army, which they accompanied in
the luckless campaign of 1876; also, in the opinion of the
Pan-Slavists the Serbs had been contaminated by European civilization,
whereas the Bulgars seemed, in the words of Professor Miliukoff,[58]
to be the sons of an untouched, virgin soil, free from politics and
ready to work, with all possible zeal for the "inner truth" of
Pan-Slavism, while begging its protector to concern herself with the
"outer truth." The Bulgars were, for these reasons, to have the
preference in the allotment of the spoils of the Turkish War; and,
owing to the conflicting demands of Russia and Prince Milan, Serbia
did not declare war against Turkey until several days after the fall
of Plevna, so that she could not hope that the Russians would show any
special tenderness towards her national aspirations. It is difficult
to see what Serbia could have hoped to gain from the elder brother,
if she had been less dilatory; she gained from this intervention no
vast gratitude from the younger brother. Men may still be found in
Bulgarian frontier villages who were prominent there during the
Serbian army's régime. Some of the officers seem to have told the
people that they ought no longer to call themselves Bulgars, since
they were Serbs; but the propaganda was very mild. Serbian schools
were opened here and there, but if no pupils wished to attend them,
the schoolmasters had a holiday; and the occupying troops limited
themselves to collecting signatures on addresses of loyalty to Prince
Milan. No one, probably, thought that the addresses and petitions were
very serious--no one, that is to say, except a Dalmatian publicist
called Spiridon Gopčević, who printed a large number of them in his
handsome, illustrated book, _Makedonien und Alt-Serbien_ (Vienna,
1889). With regard to Gopčević as a savant--he says that all the
Macedonian Slavs are Serbs--and there are equally uncompromising
Bulgarian authors--the celebrated Slavist Jagić says that he is sorry
for the good paper which was used for Gopčević's book. Another of his
wonderful discoveries was that the Macedonian Slavs are Croats. And
one of his severest judges is a Croat, S. Jurinić. He gives, as if
they were most valuable, these fatuous lists of signatures and informs
us that some Bulgarian priests and agitators tried to prevent them
being collected. A Turkish official did, it is true, show in too
Oriental a fashion that he disapproved of these collectors--on July
16, 1878, he quartered one Cvetković-Božinče on the road between
Skoplje and Kumanovo for having obtained 5000 signatures; and after
quartering him, the Turk nailed the four parts of his body, each with
a quarter of the petition tied to it, on to four posts at a place
where four roads met. But many of the more reasonable Bulgars appear
to have recognized that these activities of some Serbian officers and
others need certainly not embroil the two people; while some other
manifestations of joy, such as when they pulled out the beard of the
priest of Pirot, and after nightfall, in celebration of this triumph,
illuminated the town, those and similar transactions were treated as
the folly of exuberant subalterns; and Tako Peyeff of Trn, the
spokesman of the little, far-away town and its representative at San
Stefano, told me that although he refused to sign petitions, yet he
said that if Prince Milan should visit Trn it was the duty of all men
to salute him. Up to this time, then, there was no veritable
friction--there was only the cloud gathering over Macedonia; and even
when the Berlin Congress of 1879 adjudged certain towns to Serbia, as
a recompense for the abandonment of any claims on Bosnia, this was
rightly taken by most Bulgars as being far less the fault of Serbia
than of Austria and the other Powers. It is strange, in fact, that
this difficult passage in Serbia's history was marked by greater
animus between Serb and Croat than between Serb and Bulgar--and the
Serbs were standing in Bulgaria. Milan had not yet made his ill-omened
remark that the road to Sarajevo went _via_ Sofia.


THE DEPLORABLE MILAN

One of the direst misfortunes that ever came upon Serbia was Milan,
her fickle, headstrong, extravagant ruler. He was, perhaps, no Serb at
all; it had been given out, when he came as a child from Roumania,
that he was the grandson of the younger brother of Miloš, but this
statement was not universally accepted--he lived under the suspicion
of being an illegitimate son of the Roumanian Prince--and at his first
appearance before the Skupština a certain Ranko Tajsić, a deputy,
refused to rise. "I want that man's birth certificate!" he shouted. It
is not surprising that Milan did his best to make, from that time
onwards, Ranko's life a burden. If the Prince had been a more
satisfactory monarch, his origin would have mattered little. Many of
his attributes seem to his detractors to be peculiarly Roumanian,
although it is true that extravagance is not unknown in Serbia, and
this was the foible which his subjects, even when they learned the
colossal amount of his debts, were most willing to overlook. It was
only after his death that the secret treaty of alliance between
himself and his paymasters, the Austro-Hungarian Government, became
known; but the people, and especially the educated classes, were in
opposition to his politics, and the conflict between him and the
Radical party degenerated into a revolt that was suppressed by the
sword. The leaders of the party fled from Serbia: Pašić, who was for
so many years to be Prime Minister, settled in Bulgaria where he
practised his profession of railway engineer.... As a benignant-looking
patriarch Nicholas Pašić was for a long time the solitary Serb with
whom the well-informed public of the rest of Europe was familiar. And
of course upon his countrymen, whose fortunes he directed through
years of shadow and sunshine, his hold was tremendous. "May God bless
our dear old brother Nikky," says the peasant as he tastes his morning
glass of rakia. There is no brilliance but a profound knowledge of
human nature in this humorous old Balkan gentleman. It is not by
brilliant oratory that he sways the Skupština, for he merely thinks
aloud; slowly and haltingly, while he caresses his beautiful white
beard, the words come out in a very bass voice--it is a grave and
confidential talk, although a merry gleam occasionally dances in his
eyes. With such homeliness does he talk that he pays no strict regard
to the complications of Serbian grammar--when he appointed a very able
young official of the Ministry of Education to a diplomatic post some
hostile critics in the Press asserted that he did so on account of his
enormous admiration for a man who had produced eight books on grammar.
As a specimen of Pašić's parliamentary methods we may quote from a
speech that he made in answer to one by the aforementioned Tajsić, who
was an illiterate but most eloquent peasant. For three hours Tajsić
had railed against the secret fund, the 30 million dinars that were
every year at the disposal of the Foreign Office. At last when Pašić
gets up and very courteously smiles at the would-be reformer: "Well,
well," says he, "as to what our friend has told us--the--how should I
say?--well, it is not altogether wrong--in a way, the--what was his
name?--when you examine the matter from all sides, there is--I forget
the word--in a way, these non-public matters, you know--how should I
say?--it is best--how should I say?----" "Are you satisfied with His
Excellency's answer?" says Nikolić, the Speaker. And Tajsić puts it to
himself that after all he is only a peasant and Pašić is an Excellency
and he must know better what one should do. This habit of stroking
his beard used to be adopted by the Prime Minister when his personal
finances were under discussion. Doubtless there were many who scented
something scandalous in the fact that he possessed half the shares in
the Bor copper mines, which had risen from 500 to 80,000 dinars
apiece. He had bought them, as anybody else might have done. "Ah
well," he was wont to say in that ultra-deep voice, "you see my wife
brought them me." And a large contribution to his wealth was made by a
farmer near Kragujevac; he persuaded Pašić to buy from him for 1000
piastres--a few pounds--a meadow on which to put his horses, and
subsequently on that meadow there was found an excellent spring of
mineral water. Once for a change another political leader, whose
Christian name was also Nicholas, thought he would pull the beard of
Pašić, and he did so very vehemently just outside Kolarac, which is a
large restaurant in Belgrade. The Prime Minister was being followed by
a couple of detectives, but he signed to them that they were not to
interfere. "My darling old Nikky," said he, as he beamed at his
assailant and grasped him tightly round the throat, "you and I are
party leaders, so please don't let us quarrel. It creates an
unfortunate impression, my friend." And it was some weeks before this
man recovered, for Pašić was then about sixty years of age and still
in the flower of his strength. But to return to the disastrous reign
of Milan.


NIKITA THE COMEDIAN

The discontented Serbs could now no longer, as in days gone by, look
hopefully towards Cetinje. Rumours and something more than rumours
were circulating as to Nikita's character. For many years that very
shrewd person was going to gull the Western world which, meeting him
on the Riviera, was enchanted by his picturesque costume. But if Queen
Victoria and Mr. Gladstone had gone to ask the Montenegrins they would
have found that he was hated, and not only in the Brda and the parts
bordering on Herzegovina but even in old Montenegro. His adherents
were chiefly to be found among the Njeguši, his own clan, and in
the family of his wife. Certain English devotees of Nikita have
actually been to Cetinje, have, as they proudly tell us, been embraced
by him and have enormously admired his alfresco audiences when he
settled all manner of problems to the perfect satisfaction of these
tourists. Some of them, with a decoration or so and with memories of
dinners and shoots, have written books that are a song of praise; and
if Nikita's subjects tell these gentlemen and others, including
members of the British Parliament, who have not been to Cetinje--but
who know just as much as the travelled ones about Montenegro--if they
tell them that Nikita is a ruffian, the answer will probably be that
he who says such things must have a grievance, and that those
foreigners who have criticized him, Miss Edith Durham, Baron
d'Estournelles de Constant and Mr. Nevinson, are altogether mistaken.
I do not propose to make a long and dreary catalogue of his
iniquities, but only to mention a few items.... It was in Montenegro a
matter of common knowledge that the wheat which Russia sent in large
quantities for his famine-threatened people was not given but was sold
to them by Nikita, the proceeds being shared by himself and four or
five privileged families, the Petrović, Vukotić, Martinović
and Jabučani. A member of one of these families became so affluent
that he built himself a house, and a gentleman who still survives,
Tomo Oraovac by name, wrote on this in the year 1878 a rather humorous
poem which he called "The Red House." Oraovac was at the time an
official, the intendant of the Montenegrin army at Kotor, and he
naturally had to resign his post. The Tzar sent a certain General
Ritter to examine the charges and, as one result, a Russian decoration
was conferred upon Oraovac; according to etiquette it was transmitted
through Nikita, and that personage gave it to a friend of his, a Turk
at Podgorica. Nikita is apt to disarm one by the quaintness of his
ways. Later on, Oraovac, who was one of Montenegro's earliest
schoolmasters, organized the _intelligentsia_ for the purpose of
obtaining a Constitution. Nikita was not yet ready to grant such a
thing, and his representative who attended one of Oraovac's meetings
at Podgorica inflicted upon him two grave wounds. The reformer was
then expelled--the powerful intervention of one of Nikita's cousins
saved his life--his mother and both his brothers, _more Montenegrino_,
were likewise expelled and his house was bestowed upon a certain
Kruša, who lived in it for forty years. One must add, with respect
to the Russian wheat, that Nikita did not sell it for cash--the wars
of that period had left the land in such distress that no cash was
available. And so the wheat was delivered in exchange for bonds that
would some day become payable. When the wars of the seventies were
over, an edict was issued, and from end to end of the country, so goes
the story, men had to sell their sheep and cattle and horses, their
sticks of furniture, their land itself, to meet their obligations.
Meanwhile the Austrian frontiers had been closed. No selling was
possible outside the land, and selling within it was only permitted to
certain specified persons, agents of the Prince, and at fixed prices.
The profits were enormous; the country was ruined, and from that time
date the great emigrations to America, as was pointed out by Mr.
Leiper the Serb-speaking Scot in his admirable contributions to the
_Morning Post_.... Nikita loved to bestow things upon himself. A
famous hero, Novak Voujošević, killed seventeen Turks in one
day, and when he went, in consequence of an invitation, to Petrograd,
the Tzar presented him with a sword on which were the Russian crown
and the Montenegrin crown in diamonds. When the old warrior came back
to Cetinje, Nikita said that such a weapon could not possibly be worn
by a simple man; he therefore abstracted the diamonds and gave it him
with false ones in their place. Nikita could not endure criticism, but
those persons, including myself, who have charged him with inhuman
treatment in the case of Vladimir Tomić, an intelligent young
judge, were acting on faulty information. The tale was that Tomić,
after being incarcerated, was soused with petrol and so badly burned
that he lost his reason. As a matter of fact, this neurasthenic young
man--whose imprisonment was due to his having wantonly insulted the
whole Royal Family--poured the petrol on himself. Eventually, when
Radović came into office, he was released and, a few years later,
he died in his native village.... The Montenegrin records are crowded
with the names of those whom Nikita drove into exile for no other
reason than that they had gone abroad for an education and would no
longer be disposed to regard his methods as quite up to date. With the
exception of the few favoured families Nikita was all against anyone
acquiring riches; he deliberately put obstacles in the way of plum
cultivation, and in such a state of poverty did he keep the
Montenegrins that the Baron d'Estournelles de Constant, whose official
connection with Montenegro dates back to 1878, addressed to Nikita an
open letter with reference to the decreasing population, as to which
the statistics had been destroyed. On account of the rigorous taxation
a great many of the people were forced to migrate to America, from
where they sent almost everything they earned to their unhappy
relatives; these were compelled to pay up to 100 per cent. interest on
the loans which they had been obliged to negotiate, so that they could
not meet the taxes. And there would have been some consolation had
those taxes been productive; but by far the larger part of them, as of
the loans raised in Vienna (with the Boden Credit and the Länder Bank)
and at Constantinople were devoted to the Court and its favourites,
for rewards, journeys, decorations--every thing in fact, save the
needs of the people. It suited Nikita very well to keep his people in
dire poverty and ignorance. Such has been the poverty of the
Montenegrins that it was no uncommon sight to see them cultivating so
minute a _polje_ that the wheat which it produced would give no more
than half a loaf. And meanwhile they were not allowed to exploit the
wealth of the forests. Figs, olives, grapes and plums could all have
been cultivated with profit, and in the lower regions oranges and
lemons and tobacco. But there was the deliberate policy to keep the
population from enriching themselves. Occasionally their native wit
gained for them a surreptitious triumph. Thus it happened that a poor
peasant's son went up into the higher lands to tend the flocks of one
who was more prosperous. By some means the boy discovered that the
mountain torrent of his new abode dived underneath the rocks and
subsequently reappeared and was the stream which ran past his old
home. He turned this knowledge to effect by killing a lamb and
throwing it into the water. His parents, down below, retrieved the
lamb. Various other animals went the same journey, until the farmer
ascertained what the boy was doing; and then the day arrived when the
poor peasant, watching by the stream, saw the body of his son being
carried down towards him.

Very few schools were opened; for example the Vasojević, who are
the most numerous tribe not only of Montenegro but of all the Serbian
lands, had to content themselves with one school, built in 1882. In
1869 there was established a seminary with three classes, that was
afterwards converted into a high-school of four classes; but both of
these were frequently closed, the true reason being that the Russian
subsidies given for the school were spent on the various needs of
Nikita's Court. (By the way, at one time when Montenegro had this one
high-school and one hospital the three sons of Nikita were in
possession of ten palaces.) In 1869 the Russian Empress caused a
girls' college to be opened at Cetinje. It was one of the best
institutions in the whole Peninsula; many Serb and Yugoslav girls, in
addition to the Montenegrins, gathered at Cetinje. This college was
the centre from which education and modern ideas spread out to the
remotest corners of Montenegro; in 1913 it was obliged to close--the
Court had long been looking at it with a very jaundiced eye....
Russia, Serbia, Italy, France and even Turkey offered free education
to a certain number of young Montenegrins. But only the sons of the
favoured families were able to get passports to go abroad; there was
scarcely anything Nikita feared as much as education.... And if one
asks why no patriot could be found to kill this prince one is given
two reasons, the first being that his semi-secret treaty with the
Austrians provided that they should come into Montenegro if he were
killed, and secondly, because of the old-time custom of vicarious
punishment. In 1856, for instance, Nikita's father attacked the
Počara Kuči, burned their houses, and is reputed to have slain
more than 550 children, women and old men, including the
septuagenarian grandfather of Tomo Oraovac, on the ground that these
people had set up a kind of republic, independent both of Montenegro
and of the Sultan and declined to pay the former any taxes. These
measures were taken against them in the summer when most of the men
were with their herds in the mountains. Three children survived. The
Great Powers protested, consuls were sent and ultimately the Počara
Kuči, who had always helped the Montenegrins against the Turks,
consented to pay taxes. It was for these reasons that Nikita was never
assassinated.


THE GREAT STROSSMAYER

While the Serbs of Serbia and Montenegro no longer placed any trust in
their princes, they had good cause to give more and more of their
confidence to Strossmayer, who remained for more than half a century
at Djakovo and never, on account of Magyar opposition, became a prince
of the Church. He saw that the Starčević policy with respect to
Bosnia was a retrograde step, since it was causing the Serbs of that
province, who until the occupation had been on good terms with the
Catholic minority and the Serbs of Croatia--about 40 per cent. of the
population--to stand very much aloof from the Croats. This state of
things was naturally very pleasing to the Magyar imperialist Ban,
Count Khuen-Héderváry, whereas Strossmayer's Yugoslav idea would have,
owing to the intermingling of the two religions, a particularly
favourable ground in Bosnia. It may be that Leo XIII.'s conception of
drawing back the Slavs to Rome will remain a dream, but his and
Strossmayer's policy of an alliance would have been a blessing to the
Yugoslavs, and primarily in such provinces as Bosnia and Croatia.
Negotiations were begun in 1882, between Strossmayer and the Serbian
Government, with a view to establishing a Concordat. Serbia's Roman
Catholic subjects--who, by the way, were not very numerous--would be
placed under a patriotic priest depending not on Austria-Hungary but
directly on Rome. And thus the fence between them and their Orthodox
kindred would be gradually broken down. It would be foolish to assert
that Strossmayer and his fellow-workers were able to make all the
Yugoslavs dismiss their religious differences and remember their
national affinities. Orthodox and Catholic Slav have for so long been
divided that their approach to one another must often be slow and is
liable to be interrupted by the manœuvres of third parties. The
Austrians were pretty successful, just before and during the Great
War, in setting the Catholic and Orthodox Bosniak at each other's
throat, and this antagonism will endure for a while in remote
districts, such as in a certain village of the Sandjak where one
found, in the summer of 1919, that the Catholic chief official and his
wife were compelled to dismiss their Orthodox maid, since the
villagers would not allow her to continue to serve in a Catholic
house. But Strossmayer's statesmanship went a long way towards
breaking down these barriers. "I have had to set my face against your
mission," said von Khevenhüller, the Austro-Hungarian Minister, to
Father Tondini when this Italian Barnabite, in whom Strossmayer had
every confidence, came to Belgrade. "It is one of our principles,
inherited from Schwarzenberg and Metternich," said the Minister, "that
we should exercise a sort of control over the Serbian Catholics by
having them under the jurisdiction of an Austrian Bishop." When
Strossmayer visited Belgrade, for the purpose of conducting
confirmations, he was driven at once, amid the booming of cannon, to
the royal palace. And if the negotiations were allowed to drag it was
obviously not due to any Orthodox fanaticism. Talking of fanaticism,
one had instances in Bosnia and in Slavonia, not long ago, of Catholic
priests who discarded Strossmayer and endeavoured to get their flock
to use a different pronunciation from that of the Orthodox. It was
because he strove to bring them together that the great bishop was so
heartily disliked in Vienna and Pest. It had been decided in 1883
that, unless he made his political submission, he was to be interned
at the Trappist monastery of Banjaluka. But if he were no longer in a
position to spend the great resources of the bishopric--to say nothing
of the removal of his personal influence--the Cause would have
suffered enormously. Therefore he listened to the prayers of his
friends and submitted. "Be glad," said he to Radić, the Croat
patriot--"be glad that you are not a priest." His successful efforts
to bring about the moral and intellectual awakening of the Yugoslavs
were most unpopular in those two capitals. But on the wide Slavonian
lands and far beyond them one would find the sturdy farmers imitating
his new methods--his own estate was so large that he paid 35,000
florins a year in taxes. The tall, thin prelate might be walking with
you in his garden, telling you with simple eloquence--and in Latin,
for choice--how much he regretted that Doellinger had not submitted,
as did his adored Dupanloup, to the dogma of Papal Infallibility, when
one of those painted carts would rattle round the corner and in two
minutes this father of his people would be deep in a technical
discussion with the peasant as to which of the episcopal stallions or
bulls he should borrow for the improvement of his stock. When
Strossmayer consecrated the cathedral which he had built at Djakovo he
exclaimed that in the hour of his departure from this world his last
prayer would be for the union of his people. "Almighty everlasting
God," he cried, "have mercy upon my brave people and unite them!" As a
very old man, verging on the nineties, with brilliant eyes peering out
from under a great forehead and physically so fragile that in walking
from one room to another he had to put his arm round my neck, he was
still in every direction working to this end. Six months earlier, in
June 1903, Khuen-Héderváry had been recalled and, after his twenty
years of oppression, the young men of Croatia, Catholic and Orthodox,
in harmony with the Slovenes, were forming the Serbo-Croat Coalition.
This was a great step in the direction of the Yugoslavia which
Strossmayer did not live to see.


RELIGIOUS DISPUTES BETWEEN SERBS AND ROUMANIANS

Between Serbs and Roumanians of the Banat an ecclesiastical dispute
was on the horizon. The Roumanian Orthodox body had suffered a severe
loss through the Uniate Church, which captured many of the old
Orthodox places of worship. Thus the famous little church of
Huniadora, whose frescoes have been so glowingly described by Mr.
Walter Crane, fell into their hands. This occurred in many cases at
the wish of a small part of the congregation--and this part might
consist of gipsies--whereupon the majority would be obliged to build
themselves another church. The Greek Catholic Uniate Church was apt to
lose its national Roumanian colouring and admit the Magyar language,
which was occasionally resented by the faithful. Thus, as the Bishop
of Caransebes (now the Metropolitan of Roumania) told me, there came
into a church at Tergul, near Moros-Varshahel, a woman with a basket
of eggs. When she perceived that she could not understand the language
that was being used she put down her basket and uttered a loud curse,
"May thunder and lightning strike this church!" she cried. And after
the service had begun in a church near Grosswardein the wife of a
clergyman pulled the priest's beard, while other ladies tore off his
robes. Nevertheless this Uniate Church continued to exist and it was
natural that the Orthodox Roumanians should seek in some way to
compensate themselves for their losses. They had, as we have mentioned
above,[59] been given hospitality by the Serbian Church and given the
use of a monastery for the education of their priests. They now
suggested that it would be well if the Serbs handed over to them a
number of the Banat monasteries, and when the Serbs declined they
started a great lawsuit at Buda-Pest. Professor Iorga, the historian,
told me that he thought his countrymen were justified in that these
monasteries were originally neither Serbian nor Roumanian, but Roman
Catholic, being erected, in pursuance of their propaganda, by the
French dynasty which the Hungarians had over them in the fourteenth
century. Their nomenclature, said the Professor, is neither Serb nor
Roumanian, they had no privileges from Serb or Roumanian princes and
he believed that they only passed to the Serbs after having been
abandoned by the Catholics. A line on p. 145, vol. i., of the
_Monumenta Vaticana Hungariæ_ (Buda-Pest, 1887):

     "Item Stephanus Sacerdos de Beesd solvit I fertonem"

appeared to lend colour to this view, for the name Beesd might have
been slavized into Besdin and this might be the record of a payment
made, between 1332 and 1337, to the Pope. It is only fair to say that
the learned Magyar Jesuit who presides over the episcopal library at
Gjula Fehérvár (Alba Julia in Roumanian) did no more than say that
these surmises were possible. He was, as a matter of fact, much more
interested in the political situation and in another book, the oldest
printed Bible in Roumanian (of 1582 and in Slav characters) which, as
he pointed out with half a sigh, was published by one Magyar through
the liberality of another. The charming Bishop of Caransebes, as he
sat with me one Sunday morning in his rose garden, did not receive
Professor Iorga's idea with approbation. The Professor, he thought,
was too fond of originality and he himself preferred to claim some of
the monasteries on equitable instead of on historical grounds. They
were founded after all, he said, for the people of the Banat and of
those a majority were now Roumanian. (But in Caras-Severin, the chief
stronghold of his countrymen, there are no ancient monasteries with
the exception of some ruins. The Roumanians are not ostentatiously
religious; they do not take kindly to the building of churches and in
their portion of the Banat one usually finds churches of wood, some of
these being 150 years old.) But another librarian, this time a German
at Veršac, poured cold water on Professor Iorga. Only one Roman
Catholic religious house, he said, was founded by that French dynasty
in the Banat and this was at Egres, near the Maroš, where the wife of
Louis of Anjou built a church which remained Catholic and is now in
ruins. The monastery of Besdin was founded in 1539 and a Serb-Slav
psaltery which is kept there has, on p. 270, the following words: "In
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. So that all people shall
know when a beginning was made to build the monastery of Besdin. It
was begun in the year 7058 from the creation of the world, that is
1539 from the Birth of Christ ... Joseph Milutinović, archimandrate,
built it, and his monks and the Christians helped him. Written by me:
Leontic Bogojević, administrator and monk." Beesd and Besdin, said the
librarian, are from the same root, signifying that which has no
bottom, an abyss, and the marshes in the Banat are numerous. The Beesd
of the above citation is, said the librarian, a place between the
rivers Temes and Berzava; Catholics were there in the fourteenth
century, but the founders were Slavs. The burly archimandrate of
Besdin, whose constitution had withstood twenty-seven years of
marshes and mosquitoes, was extremely scornful of his adversaries'
pretensions. "They wanted to prove that they built it! Not one stone,
not a single stone! Then they argued that something was due to them as
they had paid a part of the church taxes. We had invited them!" ...
Most of the Serbs acknowledge that their monasteries in the Voivodina,
as elsewhere, are not under present conditions as meritorious as in
the Middle Ages when the people from twenty or thirty villages would
meet there and listen to the blind guslar-player. Sometimes one of
their few monks is a man of erudition, such as the well-known Bishop
Nicholai Velimirović or Ruvarac the great historian, who in thirty
years freed his monastery from debt and left large sums for charities.
On the other hand we have the archimandrate Radić, who ruled several
monasteries in succession; he never drove with less than four horses
in his carriage and he drove so recklessly that between eight and
sixteen horses were rendered worthless every year. The Radical party
desired, after paying fixed salaries to the archimandrates and monks,
to give two-thirds of the rest to clerical funds and one-third to
schools. But the Austro-Hungarian Government had an understanding with
the clerical party and prevented the public from exercising any
control over these funds. The twenty-seven monasteries in the
Voivodina, Syrmia and Croatia could have supported three Universities,
so richly endowed are they with lands; the Roumanians did in fact with
some of the revenues of their one monastery of Hodosh maintain the
Arad seminary. There is no knowing what other monasteries the
Roumanians would have secured if the Great War had not intervened, for
the Pest judges knew every morning which of the two litigant countries
their own country happened to prefer.

What the Serbs of the Banat had, in the political world, to contend
against may be illustrated by some incidents of the career of Dr.
Svetozar Miletić, who after having been a deputy for twenty-five
years was charged with high treason for having sent volunteers into
Serbia at the time of the Serbo-Turkish War; even if this was true it
can scarcely be said to have constituted high treason against Hungary.
The witnesses against him were two forgers, released _ad hoc_ from
prison, his own witnesses were hundreds. He was condemned to six
years' imprisonment, at the expiration of which he was in such a state
that he had to be transferred to an asylum, where he died. The pitiful
dodges of the dominating Magyar minority are by this time well enough
known; it was their argument that certain villages, say ten miles from
a town, had to give their votes in that town, while intervening
villages of other nationalities were obliged to present themselves at
a booth twenty miles in another direction, because if such methods had
not been employed then the more ancient and more reputable Magyar
culture would have been entirely swamped by the wicked non-Magyars.
Thus the three million Slovaks in Hungary were represented at
Buda-Pest by three deputies.[60] "Hungary," says the delicious Aubrey
Herbert, M.P., in the _Oxford Hungarian Review_ (June 1922), "Hungary
was situated amongst reactionary neighbours, and any loosening of her
hold upon the non-Magyar population threatened her very existence. The
path of spectacular liberalism was closed to her...." The ballot was
supposed to be secret in the towns, where the Magyars could hope to
exercise an appropriate control; but even in the towns they thought it
more advisable to take no risks. Some of the dead were permitted to
vote; but only if they were faithful Magyar dead. And in Dr.
Miletić's constituency no arrangements were made to ferry the
living--on the large lake of Mutniatsa the boats were hidden and the
voters were compelled to swim across.

       *       *       *       *       *

Although a great many of his subjects charged Prince Milan with
preferring his own and the dynasty's interests to those of the State,
they should have taken into account that the Berlin Congress had left
their country in a more than difficult economic and political
situation. Not only were Serbia and Montenegro kept apart, but in the
intervening territory, the Sandjak of Novi Bazar, permission was given
to Austria-Hungary, of which she soon availed herself, to establish
garrisons. Serbia was now almost encircled by the Austrians and there
remained only two inconvenient routes for the exportation of her
products to other countries: down the Danube, with the very high
tariffs imposed by the Berlin Congress, or by the line to Salonica,
which was in the hands of Austrian capitalists and ran through Turkish
territory. Therefore Serbia's independence, political and economic,
existed at Austria's pleasure; and this must be remembered in
extenuation of the secret Treaty[61] (June 23, 1881) whereby the Serbs
bound themselves for ten years to abstain from any propaganda or other
activity against the Habsburgs and to make no political treaties with
other Powers without the knowledge and consent of Vienna. Nor were any
foreign troops or volunteers to be allowed into Serbian territory. In
return for this the Emperor undertook to recognize Prince Milan as
King whensoever he might be pleased to assume that dignity (as he did
on March 6, 1882), to protect his dynasty from the Karageorgević
and to favour his acquisition of as much as possible of the valley of
the Vardar. The grateful Prince affirmed this Treaty (on October 24,
1881) by a still more emphatic declaration by which he appears to have
constituted himself a vassal of the Emperor. This infuriated the young
politicians whose radical ideas, mostly imbibed at Paris and Geneva,
were not balanced by the moral and social discipline which is the
fruit of an advanced civilization. As a result Serbia was given over
to chaos.... When Prince Alexander of Battenberg aquiesced in his
Bulgars annexing eastern Roumelia it was said that he was violating
the Berlin Treaty, but it is now known[62] that, in spite of the 1879
Treaty, this union had been foreseen and approved by Germany, Russia
and Austria-Hungary in 1881. Nevertheless Austria, which hoped to
embroil and enfeeble the two Slav States, urged Milan to declare war
against the Bulgars, and this he did the more willingly as he fancied
that it would divert from him the enmity of so many of his subjects;
but this war was such an unpopular enterprise that the King did not
dare to mobilize fully, and with his available forces indifferently
equipped and badly led, the upshot was that the Bulgars were
victorious. While Austria had thus been the Serb's evil genius,
Russia, by withdrawing all her officers from Bulgaria, again acted in
a manner which seemed scarcely to allow her and others, in 1915, to
denounce the Bulgars for their ingratitude. (The Russians, as a
subsequent Russian Minister at Sofia relates,[63] so completely
mishandled the situation in the early days of Bulgaria's freedom that
they had only themselves to blame for the invitation to Ferdinand of
Coburg which was made with the express purpose of thwarting Russian
aggression.)


THE BURDEN OF THE OBRENOVIĆ

The fratricidal Serbo-Bulgarian conflict of 1885 has been well
commemorated by a monument at Vidin: a soldier of the victorious
Bulgarian army is depicted, prostrate in sorrow.... Milan, after an
effort to rule with a new liberal constitution, abdicated and
delivered his country to a Regency. These statesmen, who were aware of
the secret convention with Austria, obstructed the development of the
country and had recourse to a _coup d'état_ in order to prevent a
Radical election. Alexander, the ill-fated son of Milan, by another
_coup d'état_ proclaimed himself of age, summoned a Radical Cabinet
and restored to the people their political liberties. But the
enthusiasm caused by these proceedings was not often to be roused
again by Alexander. The midnight _coups d'état_, which rapidly
succeeded one another, were a form of government congenial to this
gloomy, silent, friendless youth who blinked at the world through his
spectacles and was incapable of seeing anything except the narrowness
and the intrigues that were a part of his surroundings. More and more
he showed himself a despot; he persecuted and imprisoned hundreds of
Radicals, who were the overwhelming majority of the population.
Espionage was rampant, the finances were in a state of chaos and
Serbia's prestige was at such an ebb that, what with the disasters of
1885 and the reign of Alexander, the Macedonian Slavs were naturally
more inclined to proclaim themselves Bulgars. Alexander annulled the
constitution, imposed that of 1888, annulled this one also, superseded
all the judges of appeal as well as all the councillors of state,
married his mistress (an engineer's widow) and plotted, it was said,
to nominate as heir to the throne his brother-in-law, a worthless
young lieutenant. Meanwhile this officer and his brother were
exasperating the people of Belgrade by commanding the orchestras in
cafés to play the national anthem at their entrance, and occasionally,
while they drank, firing their revolvers into the air. It was
something more than personal exasperation which brought about
Alexander's death. Those who participated in the murder were both
partisans and opponents of the dynasty. Likewise the Austro-Hungarian
Government was aware of the plan: Count Goluchowski promised the
conspirators that Austria would not resort to armed interference,
although two army corps were held in readiness to march into Serbia.
Of course it would have suited Austria much better if the king, who
seemed to be emancipating himself from the veiled tutelage accepted by
his father, had been dethroned and kept by the Ballplatz as a
restraint on the political waywardness of any successor. Some of those
who entered the palace on the night of June 10, 1903, may have had
their intentions changed by the panic which was caused owing to the
lateness of the hour and the groping along unlighted passages--the
electricity was out of order--but amid the band of executioners there
may very well have been some who recognized that, for Serbia's future
peace and welfare, it was infinitely preferable that he should not
live. From practically the whole nation there came, when they heard of
his death, a sigh of relief; he was killed by the detestation of his
subjects. Yet there might have been, in the people's state of nerves,
an outbreak against the actual murderers and this might have
inaugurated a reign of terror if Pašić had not walked up and
down in front of the palace, wearing a bowler hat and buttonholing
everyone he saw. "Most unfortunate, most unfortunate," he said; "they
were both drunk, and so they killed each other." Meanwhile, machine
guns were being mounted at appropriate spots, but they were not
required. And Austria published to the world a few abominable
incidents that accompanied the deed and followed it; these were almost
wholly untrue, yet they served to make not only Western Europe but
even the Sultan hold up their hands in horror. Abdul Hamid raised
those hands that were dripping with the blood of hundreds of thousands
of Armenians, and in exalted phrases, says Mr. Laffan,[64] lectured
the Serbs on the undesirability of assassination.

A younger man than King Peter Karageorgević, who now succeeded,
might have been appalled by the difficulties of the situation. Murder
and the rearing of pigs were universally regarded as the purposes for
which God had created the Serbs, and years were to elapse before the
little country could persuade the world that it was not inhabited by
beings who approached the lower animals--and then the world perceived
that it was, to a great extent, inhabited by heroes. When King Peter
ascended the throne the Royal Families of Europe congratulated each
other that they were not related to him, and they sympathized with
Nikita of Montenegro for having this personage as a son-in-law. The
indebtedness of Serbia--she owed 450,000,000 francs, a sum which
swallowed a quarter of the annual budget--the corruption of the public
services, the lack of industrial development, the rudimentary state of
agriculture and whatsoever else of evil which the Obrenović had
done or left undone--everything was the fault of King Peter. A great
many people were positive that Alexander had been slain by his
myrmidons; for this foul deed he had been always plotting, from the
time when he fought as a lieutenant in the French army of 1870-1871
(when he was wounded and decorated), during the Bosnian insurrection
of 1876 (when he served the national cause) and while he was
translating Mill's _Treatise on Liberty_. These liberal activities
were held as the absolute proofs of the hypocrisy of Europe's outlaw.
In a few years "old Uncle Pete," as his people affectionately came to
call him, was revered by the men not only of friendly countries but
even by those who were in arms against him.


A HAPPY ADVENT

He started by placing the government in the hands of the Radical party
and by showing that his own position would be strictly that of a
constitutional monarch. Numerous reforms were undertaken with respect
to the finances, the exploitation of the country's resources and the
reorganizing of the army, which had been debilitated by intrigue and
corruption. So many tasks had simultaneously to be accomplished that
the greatest Serbophil may have despaired, since the national
qualities do not, as yet, include much power of organization. Is it
not astonishing, therefore, that in a few years so much was done?--the
army, for example, becoming so closely identified with the people that
high Obrenović officers felt that it was unpatriotic to perpetuate
these dynastic divisions, and gradually they resolved to offer their
swords to the State. More than one General whose abilities in the
Great War gained him a high British decoration had once been
conspicuous for his enmity to the Karageorgević. With regard to
Serbia's international standing we have the fact that in 1899-1900 it
was impossible to arrange a loan of 40 millions at Vienna even though
the entire railway system was offered as a guarantee; in a few years
various loans, with relatively easy terms, were contracted for amounts
of 90, 110 and 150 millions. One saw the peasant, who a short time
before had sold his harvest while it was still green (zeleno) to the
local usurer (hence called the "Zelenac"), now demanding every day by
telegram _via_ Belgrade or Smederevo the market prices at Antwerp. In
1895 Serbia had sunk to such depths that a Dalmatian leader said
openly to a German journalist that the Yugoslav idea could only be
realized by Bulgaria; in 1910 the "Narodna Odbrana" (or Organization
for National Defence), that was not, as the Austrians alleged, a
nursery for murderers but a patriotic body--it no doubt reminded the
people of their brothers in Macedonia, the Voivodina and Bosnia, but
at the same time urged them to cultivate the land more rationally, to
visit the doctor rather than some old woman, to dress, sleep and eat
in accordance with hygiene, and to take steps against illiteracy--in
1910 the efforts of the "Narodna Odbrana" had had such success that an
inquiry, in which the French participated, found that out of a hundred
recruits from a backward region 61 per cent. could read and write, 99
per cent. had some knowledge of the battle of Kossovo and the reign
of Dušan, while 82 per cent. could enumerate the provinces
inhabited by their unredeemed brothers. The rise of Serbia was due to
the happy direction that was now given to the virile spirit of the
people; standing back to back in their own land, they were soon able
to arouse the despondent hearts of their countrymen who languished
under various tyrannies outside the national frontiers.

Those who in Old Serbia acknowledged their Serbian nationality were
the constant victims of Albanian intolerance. One massacre followed
another--that people which, according to some of its present
champions, is mild and noble and misunderstood, with a particular
aptitude for silver-work and embroidery--Miss Edith Durham asks that
this poor nation should not be robbed of its country, its one
ewe-lamb, which they love intensely and which, to everyone's
admiration, they defend with great heroism; one cannot expect her, the
Secretary of the Anglo-Albanian Committee, to refer to the numerous
lambs, etc., which the Albanians, armed with machine guns, carried off
in 1919 from a Serbian monastery near Tetovo; and in 1903 the
Albanians, waiving their mildness, appear to have been more
conspicuous in attacking others than in defending themselves. The
monks of the old Serbian patriarchate of Peć were obliged to have
Moslem and Albanian attendants, and it does not strike one as heroic
when the monks themselves were murdered, so that the great monastery
of Dečani had perforce to be served by Russian monks from Mt.
Athos. Far distant, indeed, was the day when those Albanians, who
called themselves, after a river, the Fani, went to the assistance of
Dušan. They had been brought to a temporary standstill by the
swollen waters of the Drin--"but," exclaimed one of their chieftains,
"for a hero every day is good." They crossed the river and Dušan
gave them the name of Mirditi, by which they are still known, "mir
dit" signifying in their language "good day." Not only were the Serbs
compelled to don Albanian raiment--the Orthodox priest who ministers
to Djakovica had, in 1903, to put aside his Serbian head-dress on
leaving his quarter of the town; when making an official visit his
head-dress was Greek and always in the surrounding country it was
Albanian. Mr. Brailsford found, in June 1903, that the Serb peasants
were tenants at will, exposed to every caprice of their Albanian
conquerors; both at Peć, he says, and at Djakovica there was no law
and no court of justice. In 1903 at Mürzsteg, near Vienna, Francis
Joseph and the Tzar concluded their Macedonian reform scheme, this
rather futile arrangement paying, as one might suppose, not much
deference to the Serbs. In Bosnia also and in southern Hungary the
Serbs were in a humiliating position.

But the Serbs in the little kingdom strove manfully to put their own
house in order and to encourage their brethren. What is known as the
"Pig War" was waged, with astonishing success, against the Austrian
Empire; by sending her live-stock and meat overland to Salonica, her
cereals down the Danube, Serbia managed to break down the barriers
behind which the Austrians had intended to control her economic life.
The measures adopted by Stojanović, the Minister of Commerce, were
confirmed by the Skupština and enthusiastically supported by the
whole people, regardless of the accompanying privations or of any
bribes held out by the Austrians. Thus when the Austrians reduced the
fares on their well-equipped Save and Danube vessels, these were still
boycotted in favour of the Serbian boats. One morning at Šabac a
civil servant had embarked on the Austrian ship, while everybody else
was crowding on to the much smaller, slower and less cleanly Serbian
rival. The civil servant was being vigorously hissed, when he shouted
across to his compatriots that as he was an official he had a free
pass and he thought it a good plan to make the Austrians consume,
simply for him, a certain amount of coal.... The young men of the
_intelligentsia_ were not idle. Žerjav for the Slovenes, Krisman
for the Croats, Yovanović and Nešić for the Serbs, were
eagerly at work to bring about the union of the Southern Slavs. They
had some sympathizers in Bulgaria, but that country was too much
oppressed by Ferdinand and the Germanic influence. Both Žerjav and
Krisman were destined to become Ministers in the South Slav
Parliament, which of course does not yet include Bulgaria.
Nešić, who was the diplomat of the Serbian movement, became
Consul at Priština, took part in the Balkan War, for instance at
the siege of Scutari, as an artillery officer, and after some years
found himself inside the town as Yugoslav Envoy. He is now Minister at
Tirana, a delicate post which could not be in better hands. Ljuba
Yovanović was the idealist whose work was to arouse his
fellow-countrymen by articles and poems. In the war against Bulgaria
he was wounded and in hospital contracted cholera. On the day of his
death he wrote to a brother of Nešić, now one of Belgrade's
leading lawyers; he was utterly grieved, he said, that brother-Slavs
should have shed each other's blood, but he was certain that the day
of union would come.


AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN WRATH

The first external result of Serbia's efforts was seen in 1905, when
forty young intellectuals of Croatia, Dalmatia and Istria met at Rieka
and, while accepting the union of Croatia with Hungary, called on the
Serbian political parties to join them. Twenty-six Serbian deputies
met at Zadar, endorsed this policy and formed with the Croats the
Serbo-Croat Coalition, to which the Slovenes also subscribed. Francis
Kossuth, the Magyar Opposition leader, welcomed with eloquent phrases
the idea of an alliance between his party and the new Coalition; but
when he came into power he forsook this attitude and exhibited the
ordinary Magyar ruthlessness--he himself introducing a bill to make
the Magyar language obligatory on Croatia's railways, and if a
prospective Croat passenger did not know what name the Magyars had
given to his old home and could not ask for a ticket in the Magyar
language, he was told to stop where he was until he had acquired the
necessary knowledge. In general, the Magyars had no reason to be
dissatisfied with the sort of knowledge that the world had of them. In
1907, when a funeral pall was spread over the liberties of the Croats,
Serbs, Slovaks and Roumanians in Hungary, Mr. Roosevelt, who was
making his famous tour, gave many bouquets to "immortal Hungary," the
"virtuous," the "chivalrous." The Serbo-Croats tried, by every
possible method, to hold out against Buda-Pest. A Ban--Baron
Rauch--was appointed with the special purpose of breaking the
Coalition; and when the Serbo-Croats obtained fifty-seven seats out
of eighty-eight, although one-half of the electorate consisted of
employees dependent on the Government, an order was issued proroguing
the new Diet.

In fact the Austro-Hungarian authorities had resolved to suppress any
Yugoslav union. To the Dalmatians, who were in need of schools, roads
and railways, they said, "Show us first that you are patriotic
subjects of the House of Habsburg." Necessities, as Hermann Bahr has
pointed out[65] were thus turned into rewards, which were to be the
fruit of years of toil....


THEIR MONTENEGRIN FRIEND

The association of the Montenegrin Royal Family and the Habsburgs,
which was to culminate in the barefaced treachery of Lovčen, may be
said to have begun in the year 1906, when the two heirs, Francis
Ferdinand and Danilo, met at Dubrovnik. A statement was issued, after
a few days, which declared that Russia was far away and that
Montenegro required the support of a Power whose help would be
effective. If it had not been for the disasters of the Russo-Japanese
War, Nikita would have found it much more difficult to direct his
country in this manner. The Black Mountain had always thought of
Russia as all-powerful; her defeat, when they could bring themselves
to realize it, was to them as if the foundations of the world were
rocking; in their dazed condition they agreed that it was well to have
recourse to Austria. (When the Russian Minister at Cetinje protested,
some explanation was given.) The financial details of the Dubrovnik
agreement are unknown, but from what one does know of Danilo it is
fairly safe if we assume that the whole benefit did not accrue to the
Montenegrin Government. Danilo may in other respects have been an
incapable young man--the advice of his unmarried sister, Xenia, was
always preferred to his; in fact, her father had such confidence in
this masterful woman with the pallid face and large, black eyes--the
"femme fatale," as her enemies have called her--that he never gave an
audience but she was present, either openly or behind a screen.
Danilo's incapacity, however, seems to have stopped short, as we shall
see, at the procuring of cash.

In that same year, 1906, Montenegro's first Skupština assembled.
Many people wondered why the autocrat bestowed a Constitution and a
Skupština upon his subjects. They for their part--at least the
great majority whose knowledge of the world was gained by looking at
it from their mountain fastnesses--could never for a moment doubt but
that the Montenegrins were the grandest and the noblest of the Serbs.
Hour after hour of peace they spent, disdaining to do any work more
arduous than smoking cigarettes and drinking rakia, and talking,
talking ... they would relate to one another what their ancestors had
done by way of cutting Turkish noses, and unweariedly they would
announce how their own blood was undiluted and heroic. If Greater
Serbia was to be created it was surely they who--but Nikita, their
keen-witted ruler, was not so certain. The Karageorgevič were no
longer being treated by Europe as outlaws; by his constitutional
methods King Peter had not only effected vast and needed improvements
in his country, but was gradually winning for himself and it, if not a
general esteem, at all events the first approach to that condition
which for so long had been lacking. And Nikita was uneasy. He must
also have a Constitution in his country and a Skupština. Very well
he knew that with the inexperience of his people, with their furious
local rivalries and with his power of veto, he would not be greatly
hampered by this Skupština. It would be a semblance of modernity.

Nikita had no intention of allowing himself to be put in the shade by
the Prime Minister. Whether it was Tomanović, a kindly man of
straw, or General Martinović, an upright soldier, or anybody
else--their function was to execute the royal orders. The differences
which separate one political party from another in a Balkan State, and
separate them very often into frantically hostile camps, are wont to
be minute as to their principles, for it is largely a question as to
whether you are a devotee of this or of that statesman. Two of the
three parties which existed in Montenegro down to the Great War were
both grouped round the Crown Prince Danilo, and apparently the sole
difference between them was that no member of the Miuškević
Cabinet had been in prison. To a western European it would be
surprising that the kindred Radović party should also be on terms
of close friendship with Danilo, seeing that it consisted of Nikita's
dissatisfied relatives (one of these was Radović's powerful
father-in-law) who disliked the new statute which limited the Royal
Family to Nikita and his children. Danilo protected this party for
personal reasons. As for the third political party, that of General
Martinović, its principal plank was its opposition to the other two
parties. Mita Martinović himself was not much of a politician; he
was a sturdy friend of Russia. Of his rivals, Lazar Miuškević, a
bearded, rather stout, medium-sized man, has a pious opinion of his
own abilities, and is, or was, very proud of his friendship with
Danilo. He need not be taken seriously, for he has no knowledge of
administration, no political courage and no popular support. [During
the Great War he was for a time the Premier, and after the War, when
the other five ex-Premiers ranged themselves against Nikita, he stayed
in Switzerland, where he tried for many months to make up his mind.]
Andrija Radović, a middle-aged man, whose tall, athletic form is
crowned with the head of a grave poet, was erstwhile a favourite of
Nikita's. Being related to the Royal Family, Nikita called him his
fourth son, and when, after the fatuous bomb conspiracy (of which more
anon), Radović was lured back from Paris and sentenced to four
years' imprisonment, it was not because he was in any way guilty, but
on the ground that he knew what was going to happen and should have
handed on the information. The real reason was that any party which
was even to a mild extent in favour of reforms did not meet with the
approval of the Gospodar. In his opinion it was necessary to reduce
Radović to obedience; and Nikita used to try, without success, to
force the innocent prisoner to beg for pardon. Since he declined to do
so, he remained incarcerated with a large cannon-ball chained to his
left leg. While he was in prison he corresponded with Danilo, and on
being liberated was received by Nikita--they wept in each other's
arms.

Nikita fancied he was just the man to govern a progressive modern
State. When he had the famous old warrior Pero publicly flogged by a
criminal for having refused to degrade himself by flogging that same
criminal, Nikita might plead that he was acting in the interests of
discipline. When he confined his critics in the old Turkish fortress
on the small, malarial island of Grimojuri, with the water oozing into
the cells, he might plead that this was precisely the same curriculum
as fell to the lot, at San Juan de Ulloa, of those who incurred the
displeasure of Porfirio Diaz, the Mexican President--and Diaz had been
almost worshipped (till his fall) by many Europeans. When Nikita drove
one afternoon with friends of his to Nikšić and approvingly
looked on while they destroyed the building and the whole machinery of
Montenegro's weekly newspaper, which had departed from the paths of
adulation--well, I see that his apologist, a certain Mr. A.
Devine,[66] says that "in 1908 political passions resulted in the
extinction of the organ of the political Opposition, _Narodna Misao_
("The National Idea")."

In 1908 there fell the blow of Bosnia-Herzegovina's annexation to the
Empire, thus placing definitely under foreign sway the central portion
and ethnically among the purest of that Serbian people which was
already divided into seven different administrations or States. Russia
was still enfeebled by the Japanese War, and although she and Great
Britain protested against the annexation, Count Aerenthal was able to
gather this booty. It would, however, be an exaggeration to say that
Russia--apart from the ultra-patriotic Press--was violently excited.
As M. Nekludoff, the able diplomat, explains,[67] his country was
annoyed not so much at the Bosnian annexation as because there was for
it no _quid pro quo_, no free passage through the Dardanelles. Poor
Serbia was advised by the Great Powers to accept the _fait accompli_.
She constrained herself to do so, but both she and certain folk in
Austria were under no illusions as to the inevitable--a month after
the annexation a Viennese newspaper announced that a conflict with
Serbia and Montenegro could not be avoided. "The longer we postpone
it," said the paper, "so much the more will it cost us."

One gets very weary of hearing the phrase "Divide et impera," which
always occurs at least several times in the course of an exposition of
Austrian policy. But we are bound to say that this principle governed
her behaviour when she stage-managed in 1908 the Zagreb high-treason
trial,[68] which was to drive a wedge between Serbs and Croats, in
1909 the Friedjung case, as also the Cetinje bomb affair which was to,
and did in fact, alienate Nikita from his son-in-law, the Serbian
King.


AUSTRIA GIVES HOSTAGES TO HISTORY

The Zagreb trial was conducted by a man who gave a good impersonation
of Mr. Justice Shallow. "There is nothing to laugh at!" he cried, when
a Serb doctor was asked whether he did not refuse to wear cravats
because of the resemblance of that word to Croat. The whole farce
resulted, not as one might have expected, in the collapse of the
prosecution but in thirty-one convictions, varying in length from five
to twelve years. The Croats, however, had thwarted Austria's schemes.
They remained true to the Serbs, acted as their counsel without
payment and helped to support the families of the poorer prisoners. At
the Friedjung trial this professor, an eminent historian, produced a
series of photographs of documents which were subsequently shown to
have been fabricated at the Austro-Hungarian legation in Belgrade; he
wished to prove that a political club in that town was guilty of a
most extensive plot involving the Yugoslav territories of the House of
Habsburg. Among those whom these proceedings and those at Zagreb
brought into European prominence were the Pribičević brothers, a
very zealous family of Croatian Serbs, that is to say Croats belonging
to the Orthodox Church. [The chief of these four brothers was
Svetozar, a statesman whose Serbo-Croat Coalition party was, with the
advent of Yugoslavia in 1918, to form the nucleus of the Democratic
party. He then became for many months the all-powerful Minister of
the Interior, a man with the appearance of a bull-dog in whose veins
is electricity. The vehemence of his methods of centralization is
supported and opposed by his countrymen with an almost equal
vehemence.] ... But to return to the events of 1908 and 1909--the
result of these two trials was lamentable from the Austrian point of
view. More success attended her efforts in Cetinje, for Nikita was
intensely roused against his son-in-law, and the European reputation
of Serbia was again dragged down to the level of the day which saw the
murder of Alexander and his Queen. An individual called Nastić
whom, according to Professor Friedjung, one could only touch with a
pair of tongs, accused the Serbian Royal Family of attempting to blow
up their picturesque relative, under whose roof, by the way, Princess
Helen of Serbia, his grand-daughter, happened to be staying. The bombs
were carried in an ordinary portmanteau to Kotor, where they were
discovered. Those who believed that Nikita, the arch-intriguer, was
using this method for discrediting the Karageorgević dynasty, can
point to the fact that he never wanted a public trial, and it seems
probable that Nikita--who was aware that a group of his young,
discontented subjects was planning against him a demonstration, but
nothing more than that, even though there are in the Balkans a certain
number of people who incline to the throwing of a bomb when their
British equivalents would write to the _Times_--it seems probable that
Nikita may not only have stolen their thunder but have put the
lightning in their pockets and have then indignantly revealed it. But
the whole affair is wrapped in darkness and awaits the exploring of
Austria's archives. The probability is that Aerenthal was at his work
to demonstrate that Belgrade was a nest of vipers, so that Europe
would not hearken to their protest when the time came for the House of
Habsburg to smother them.[69] ... This same Austrian police-spy
Nastić had procured for Nikita a certain "revolutionary statue"
which that personage made over to the Imperial authorities, for use
against the Serbs at the Zagreb treason trial. This atrocious deed
against his brother Serbs destroyed for ever the last shreds of
Nikita's reputation.


THE DREAMS OF AN OLD REALIST

Nevertheless he dreamed that from the mighty castle which looks down
on Prizren he would rule the Southern Slavs; his eyes were ever turned
towards the famous legendary land of Old Serbia. One essential was
that he should be a king, and in 1910 with the consent of the Powers
he assumed this title. The spider-webs of which he was so fond began
to join Cetinje and Sofia, Cetinje and the mountains of Albania, while
the master-weaver mitigated in his usual fashion the monotony of life
in his poor capital. The Petrović have such a way with them
that--if you do not happen to be one of their subjects--you are in
danger of being disarmed. Thus when they were basking in the goodwill
of Austria and when Nikita himself, in the spring of 1911, had been
splendidly received at Vienna, so that on his return to Cetinje he was
welcomed by the whole diplomatic body, save for the Russian Minister,
Count Giers, and General Potapoff, the Russian military attaché, who
were exhibiting their Government's disapproval, this appeared to
Nikita a favourable moment for--as the Persians would say--blackening
the face of the Austrian representative.

It was said by many of his discontented subjects that the King of
Montenegro's great solicitude for his own personal affairs caused him
frequently to be quite dull in recognizing other people's merit. But
that day when he received the Austrian Minister he was so very much
delighted with him that he there and then gave him promotion from the
second to the first class of the Order of Danilo. He had some months
before conferred upon this gentleman the second class, with diamonds
of paste, and when the Austrian now told the King of his appreciation
of the honour being so profound that he had ventured to replace the
other diamonds with real ones--"I am enchanted," said the King, "to
see that we have such a real friend in you, and I propose to grant
you," said the King, as he produced another star composed of imitation
diamonds, "to grant you this, the most exalted class. Your Excellency
has deserved right well of our beloved Montenegro. Give me back now
that inferior decoration, and to-morrow, with due ceremony at eleven
o'clock to-morrow," said the King with his paternal smile, "we will
bestow on you what you deserve so richly, and it gives me every
satisfaction, I assure you," said His Majesty.

The Malissori of Albania were also listening to the old man's
blandishments. If they would revolt against the Turks--they were
exasperated at the time against the Young Turk rule--then their
families would be sheltered in Montenegro and their land, after it had
been liberated, would be given independence. With the potent help of
Ferdinand of Bulgaria the Turk was to be overthrown. But nothing came
of all these plans; the Malissori were abandoned to the mercy of
Constantinople.

However, in 1912 that which had been thought impossible was brought
about: Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Montenegro were allied against the
Turk. "Onamo, onamo!..."

    "Yonder, yonder!--Let me see Prizren,
     For it is mine--I shall come to my home...."

but Nikita, who had written these famous words and who had taught them
to his people for a generation, had no cavalry--in the Montenegrin
mountains they would have been of no avail--and thus, while his
warriors were still some hours from Prizren, they had the
mortification of hearing that the Serbs had entered it. With
passionate desire they turned to Scutari. Nikita told them of the old
Slav princes who were buried there--and to the simple-minded
Montenegrins that seemed a good enough reason why 20,000 of them, the
flower of the army, should lay down their own lives on the dreary
hills that barred them from the town. It was hardly necessary for
Nikita to allude to the wealth that would be theirs if they could gain
possession of this outlet to the Adriatic. There in the plain at the
end of the lake was the glittering white town, and if they could have
seen themselves as clearly and their own inadequate resources, they
would have refrained from the attempt. The minarets of Scutari, raised
like so many warning fingers, failed to warn them. Their equipment was
such that munitions and other supplies were frequently carried up to
the lines by women--on the Bardonjolt no less than eighty of these
were killed and wounded in one day. When the Serbs in October pushed
through Albania to the Adriatic they offered to assist in the taking
of Scutari, but Nikita shook his head. And it was not until some time
after this that he accepted the co-operation of three batteries of
Krupp guns, which had been meanwhile taken from the Turks at Kumanovo.
But the Montenegrin army was not only handicapped by its lack of
resources; the Crown Prince, who commanded a division, actually
instigated a revolt among his own men. He had promised the Austrian
Minister, Baron Giesl von Gieslingen, that the Montenegrin army would
not enter Scutari, and the Government could only put a stop to
Danilo's intrigues by invoking the aid of General Potapoff. The Turks
were not wasting their time; they employed Austrian engineers to
strengthen the fortifications, and thus the task had become far more
difficult when finally the Montenegrin Court party availed itself of
Serbian reinforcements. In more ways than one they were badly needed
by the brave but ill-disciplined soldiers. "It is wonderful," they
said to Major Temperley,[70] "their troops do not fire until an
officer gives the word." Primitive men and a venal commander--according
to Dr. Sekula Drljevič, who was Minister of Finance and Justice,
Prince Danilo is alleged to have remembered, just before his country's
entrance into the War, that money could be made on the Vienna Bourse
by judicious selling and, after the declaration of war, by purchasing.
The professional financier who on this occasion, thanks to his
knowledge of the Montenegrin royal plans, is alleged to have realized,
with his friends, the sum of 140 million francs, was no less a person
than Baron Rosenberg, whose subsequent operations in Paris at the
beginning of the Great War and in Switzerland during the War received
the close attention of the French authorities.[71] These financial
methods of Danilo's did less material harm, at any rate to his own
people than the system he employed as a motorist; it was necessary
that he should obtain the latest models, and it suited him that the
Government, not haggling over the price, should take over his
discarded vehicles. Similar hostages to gossip were given by Mirko,
his younger brother; one remembers the smiles of the diplomatic corps
at Cetinje when this young man dispatched, at the cost of the
Government, a telegram of about 500 words to Austria, concerning a
horse which he wanted to buy. Mirko, who died during the Great War in
an Austrian sanatorium, was not one of those rugged and valiant
Montenegrin mountaineers whom Gladstone and Tennyson celebrated; once
when his father ordered him to come back from Paris, where he was
copiously spending his country's substance on an actress with whom he
had decamped, leaving his wife and several young children at Naples,
he dutifully returned and settled down in his palace, a large,
comfortable house outside Podgorica. Since it was less amusing than in
Paris he remained in bed for most of the twenty-four hours; he would
often spend an hour before dinner in superintending the removal of
pictures from one wall to another, and having dined he would immerse
himself in State affairs, which took the form of speculating as to
when he and his heirs--Danilo being childless--would be called to rule
over the great Serbian kingdom of Serbia combined with Montenegro. As
to the fate of the Karageorgević dynasty, this was wont to vary from
night to night, in proportion to the amount of wine that Mirko had
drunk.

These events occurred in 1913, and in the same year the Montenegrins
entered Scutari. It was not brought about by force of arms, but by
some arrangement with Essad Pasha, the illiterate and clever Albanian
who succeeded to the command of the town after Hussein Riza Bey, the
Turkish leader, had been assassinated on the threshold of Essad's
house, where he had been dining, by a couple of the Pasha's men,
disguised as women. Scutari was not to stay for long in Montenegrin
hands; an International Force arrived, under Admiral Sir Cecil Burney,
and took it over. One need scarcely add that the national sentiment of
the Albanians moved the Powers at this juncture as little as it moved
the Albanians.


VERY HIGH POLITICS

We have seen that Prince Danilo, before flinging himself against the
infidel Turk, is alleged to have transacted a little business on the
Bourse--a former Montenegrin Minister of Finance says that he may well
have netted between 25 and 30 million crowns--and his royal father,
though his methods often had a tinge of mediævalism, was not the man
to rush, like some old knight, in succour of distress. When Serbia was
attacked in 1914 he refrained from flying to her side. Montenegro
"stood up spontaneously to defend the Serbian cause: she fought and
she fell," says Mr. Devine. There is not the least doubt but that the
vast majority of Montenegrins would have acted in this fashion. To
some degree they had deteriorated under the example of Nikita--"A fish
stinks from its head," says a Turkish proverb; but when their brother
Serbs were in deadly peril all else was forgotten. And they were
bewildered and suspicious when the Skupština was summoned, seeing
that the Constitution laid it down that the declaring of war was a
royal prerogative. As practically every man was thirsting for
battle--after all they were Serbs and incapable of committing high
treason against their brethren--they marvelled at the King's delay.
But to the politicians his manœuvre explained itself; they
recognized that Nikita had some secret arrangement[72] with the
Austrians and that he wanted to tell Francis Joseph that the War had
been forced upon him. From that moment he was playing a double rôle; a
Serbian officer was chief of the Montenegrin staff. "They have placed
my army under Serbian command," he told the Austrians. "So faithful
was I," he said to the Entente, "that I even took a Serbian
commander."

In view of the persistent pro-Nikita propaganda which subsequently
reared its foolish head in Great Britain, it is as well to note what
were the sentiments of the Montenegrins towards their own country and
their brother Serbs, and on the other hand how they regarded Nikita.
Alone among the Allies the Montenegrin soldier received no decorations
either in the Balkan wars or in the Great War, and yet he had formerly
been so proud of such recognition that it had often been carved upon
his tombstone, and when for one decoration there were two claimants a
duel was frequently arranged in order to decide which was to be the
recipient. But Nikita's régime of corruption and intrigue caused these
marks of distinction to be conferred more and more upon police-agents
and such like, so that in the Balkan War, when the heroes could no
longer be counted, when more than five standard-bearers fell one after
another in carrying the same standard and when it was proposed to
decorate _en bloc_ the Kuči brigade, the soldiers refused to accept
what had been so profaned.


THE RIDDLE OF SARAJEVO

On June 28, 1914, the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne, was murdered at Sarajevo.

In the course of July 1914 the Austro-Hungarian Government (wherein
far more influence was exerted by Count Tisza, the wealthy and
incorruptible, the vastly ambitious Magyar Prime Minister, than by the
Foreign Minister, Count Berchtold, the courteous, somewhat frivolous
man of the world who was doomed to execute reluctantly the orders of
Berlin and be swept away by the resulting storm, while the brave and
brutal Tisza, fighting for the glory of the Habsburgs and the greater
glory of the Magyars, rode upon the storm for years)--the
Austro-Hungarian Government in July 1914 dispatched to Sarajevo a
commissioner for the purpose of investigating whether the Serbian
authorities had anything to do with the Archduke's assassination. This
official, Baron von Weisner, a very distinguished Professor of
Political Economy who was a German Bohemian[73] with staunch German
sympathies, reported in the same month that he was convinced that no
accusation whatever could be levelled against Belgrade. (As a matter
of fact the Serbian police, who had information that a plot was being
hatched in Bosnia, gave warning to the Austrian authorities; but no
notice was taken of this, not even when a similar warning was uttered
on June 21 by the Serbian Minister at Vienna, nor were any special
precautions laid down for the Archduke's safety. It was all rather
mysterious.) "Byzantium, the everlasting and unconquerable Byzantium,"
says an Austrian publicist,[74] "had won another victory.... The
Habsburg Empire," says he, "only wished to defend herself against
those invisible and irrepressible intrigues." And after denouncing the
Serbs for throwing a spark into the powder barrel on June 28, 1914, he
accounts for their conduct by writing that "it is the tradition of
nomad blood to tear down ancient, noble palaces, replacing them by
nomad huts." What we know is that General Potiorek, the Governor of
Bosnia, who had urged Francis Ferdinand and his wife to continue their
programme after the failure of the first attempt at assassination
before lunch, was never invited to explain anything--unfortunately for
Austria he was placed in command of the "punitive expedition" into
Serbia. Other incidents on which a light may some day be thrown were
the very unceremonious funeral arrangements for the murdered couple
(though this may very likely have been due to the High Chamberlain's
personal hatred of the Archduke), and the fact that an Imperial
Commission was sent to Konopiště, the Archduke's Bohemian
estate, to seize his papers. It was there that he had lately been
confabulating with the German Emperor; and Count Berchtold had visited
the place on the day after the Kaiser's departure to try to ascertain
what had occurred.... It was also at Konopiště that Francis
Ferdinand, who was threatened with hereditary madness, had shot a
gamekeeper dead. Knowing that the Archduke was as good a shot as he
was insignificant in horsemanship, this had excited great attention in
the highest circles, coming as it did after other scenes of
violence.... In contrast with all these semi-mysteries it is clear
that Serbia had nothing whatever to gain by the Archduke's
disappearance, and although Austria had time and again endeavoured to
pick a quarrel with her she had managed to avoid a situation which,
after the two recent wars, would be perilous in the extreme. The
Serbian Press, which enjoyed a complete freedom, was naturally violent
in tone when it observed that the Austro-Hungarian Government was
doing little to control the demonstrations hostile to Serbia. Houses
of prominent Serbs were looted and gutted at Sarajevo, while similar
scenes took place--with the connivance of the authorities--in other
large towns of the Monarchy. But the Belgrade populace, uninflamed by
their Press, conducted themselves with great moderation. The stories
circulated in Austria-Hungary of several Magyar journalists having
been murdered were absolutely false. Just as false were the rumours of
a demonstration against the Austrian Minister at the funeral of M.
Hartwig, his Russian colleague, although Serbian public opinion
ascribed the sudden death of this powerful friend of theirs to a cup
of poisoned coffee at the Austrian Legation. Hartwig has been
criticized for his encouragement of Serbia's idea of expansion and for
having fostered anti-Austrian propaganda--of course it was a very
wicked thing, from the Austrian point of view, to think of the day
when the Serbs might be joined to their unredeemed brethren; and as
for the blessed word "propaganda," which covers everything from the
mildest expression of opinion to assassination, there has been no
responsible Austrian so reckless as to accuse the Serbs or M. Hartwig
of having had recourse to methods that approached in wrong-doing their
own notorious (and unsuccessful) forgeries.

Let us address three questions to those who carried on a calumnious
campaign against Serbia:

     (a) Why was the Sarajevo trial conducted behind a closed
     door? If the crime was instigated and perpetrated by Serbia,
     the Habsburg Monarchy, which at the time of the trial had
     already declared war on Serbia, had every interest in
     establishing with all publicity the guilt and the complicity
     of Serbian circles.

     (b) Why were the evidence of the witnesses and the
     declarations of the authors of the assassination not
     published? It was only in 1918 that the Austrian Government,
     with the help of a professor of Berlin University, published
     a few facts taken from the proceedings of the trial.
     Although in this book[75] a great deal of material
     importance has been omitted--for example, the declarations
     of the witnesses as well as the last declarations of the
     accused, nevertheless that which we have before us
     constitutes one of the most terrible accusations against the
     Habsburg Monarchy. The young accused persons were not afraid
     to state, even behind closed doors in a barrack-room, some
     bitter truths concerning Austria-Hungary. One can have some
     idea of what they would have said in a public trial from the
     results of the famous trials of Zagreb and of Friedjung. All
     the accused persons, as well as their accomplices, declared
     that the decision to kill the Archduke was an act of their
     own personal will and that nobody incited or ordered them
     to make the attempt, least of all any authority of the
     Kingdom of Serbia. The crime was the personal act of Bosnian
     patriots who believed that they were serving their oppressed
     people. "In Bosnia," said the Minister Burian--"in Bosnia,
     there is no policy, there is only administration."

     (c) Why did the Sarajevo police and Austro-Hungarian
     official circles conduct themselves so strangely with
     respect to the bomb-thrower Čabrinović, a notorious
     anarchist and son of a Sarajevo police spy, who had on a
     former occasion been expelled by the police from Sarajevo?
     Later on, after the Belgrade police had been obliged, owing
     to the intervention of the Austrian Consulate, to allow him
     to stay in Belgrade, he returned to Sarajevo and was quite
     unmolested by the police, whose precautions a few years
     previously, at the time of the visit of Francis Joseph, had
     gone so far as to expel, as suspected persons, two members
     of the Bosnian Parliament.

The sole charge that could be laid, not against Serbia but against a
Serbian subject, concerned the relations of the subordinate officer
Tankosić with the authors of the crime. It was asserted that he
knew of the plan and that he helped the assassins to procure money and
weapons. The accused definitely said that he exercised no influence on
their decision, which had been taken before conversation with him. But
even supposing that he was an accomplice, it is evident that the whole
Serbian nation and especially the Serbian Government is not identical
with an officer who, on account of other troubles with the Ministry of
War, had already been removed from the active service list.[76] When
the Austrian ultimatum was transmitted to the Serbian Government,
Tankosić was immediately arrested, so that his guilt and complicity
might be enquired into and established. Serbia could not do more than
that. But the whole Serbian people, in Serbia and out of Serbia, was
declared guilty of the crime, and immediate steps were taken to carry
out the sentence. The unprecedented atrocities committed by the
Austro-Hungarian army in Serbia were to be the expiation of an
imaginary crime, and such proceedings, which recall the times of
Attila, are shielded by the illustrious name of the aforementioned
Professor Kohler, whose reputation it was to be the most democratic of
German jurists. All his previous theories on crime, causality and
responsibility became void; we see him adopt the monstrous theory
according to which every act of private persons is the responsibility
of the whole nation.

It remained for Nikita, a man of Serbian blood, a man whose verses had
been laden with love for the Serbian nation, it remained for this
shameless Prince to charge his brothers with the crime. So implacable
was the old man's hatred of Serbia that when President Wilson arrived
in Europe he immediately wrote[77] to him, in his indifferent French,
for fear, he said, lest the intrigues conducted by the Serbs or their
accomplices should precede him in capturing the President's
sympathies. "In spite of their perfidy," said he, "I was the first to
lend them a hand by being the first to declare war against Austria,
although I was certain that the provocation originated on their side
by the Sarajevo murders and their Black Hand.... Horrible thought that
this country refuses to realize the crime it has committed, for which
it is responsible to mankind no less than William!"

At last, on January 5, 1917, the _Neue Freie Presse_ acknowledged that
Austria provoked the war with the intention of crushing Serbia. It is
a formal and categorical confession. And it obliges us to consider
seriously the thesis put forward by Jules Chopin in _Le Complot de
Sarajevo_ (Paris, 1918), according to which the plot was hatched at
Konopiště between the German Kaiser and the man to whom the plot
proved fatal. Monsieur Chopin, after a minute examination of the facts
and of grave presumptions, believes that Serbia was to be held up to
the world as having provoked the war that was to consolidate the
Monarchy and satisfy the Archduke's paternal ambitions. The army
manœuvres were to be in Bosnia, the Archduke was to make his
ceremonial entry into Sarajevo on Vidov dan, the day when the Serbs
solemnly celebrate the battle of Kossovo, and Čabrinović, son of
the Sarajevo police-spy, was to be assisted through the Chinese Wall
which then encircled Bosnia. But what did not enter into the royal
calculations was the possibility that other Southern Slavs, acting on
their own initiative, might strike a real blow.


THE MISERABLE MACEDONIANS

This period of Yugoslav history (from 1876 until the European War) was
at the beginning much concerned with Macedonia. And so it was towards
the end. Very wretched was the lot of the Macedonian Slavs--occasionally
the Exarchists and occasionally the Patriarchists were in the
ascendant, but while in religious matters the Greeks clung by all
possible means to their ancient, privileged position, so the Turks
maintained in secular affairs the sorry plight of their Slav raia. The
Macedonian Slavs, when the rest of Europe began to listen to their
cries, were not the most sympathetic of mortals--the more enterprising
of them had abandoned the country, while the moral sense of those who
stayed was grievously affected by the course of conduct which the
presence of the Turk compelled. Europe was touched by the anguish of
these Christians and did not inquire too closely as to the proportion
of the virtues, often called the Christian virtues, which they
cultivated. And it was undoubtedly a fact that their treatment left a
great deal to be desired. The peasant was obliged to pay direct
imposts in cash. There were taxes on landed property, on cattle, on
sheep and on fruit-trees, tithes on every species of harvest and a
poll-tax to which only Christians were liable, amounting to ten
shillings per annum for every male. To complete the exactions with a
touch of irony, there was also an education-tax and a heavy road-tax
for the upkeep of the indescribable highways. These taxes were not
collected by Government officials, but were farmed out to the highest
bidder, and so flagrant were the abuses of this system that it was not
unusual for the villagers to cut down their fruit-trees in order to
avoid the tax upon them, for the tax-farmer, against whom an appeal
would be worse than useless, was wont to appear with gendarmes and
estimate, according to his fancy, the amount of any crop.[78] Another
tax very frequently imposed upon the helpless peasant was the tribute
to some Albanian chief, who in return undertook to protect the
village. And if the village was outside the Albanian sphere of
influence it was usually obliged to have its own resident brigands,
who might or might not be Albanians. Generally speaking, those
villages were the least to be envied which were on the borders of
Albanian territory: cattle were lifted, crops of corn or hay were
carried off before they could be garnered, young men and old men were
kidnapped and held to ransom; sometimes, says Mr. Brailsford, they
were fettered and driven to the fields at sunrise with the cattle and
were forced to work there until evening. Most of the villages in
Macedonia were owned by a Turkish bey to whom the peasant was obliged
to give a clear half of the harvest, besides a certain amount of
labour on the bey's private farm and in his mill, as well as hewing
wood for him and transporting his produce to the market without
payment. It is not surprising that the Macedonian Slavs, whose labour
brought them such inadequate reward, sank into very slothful habits.
Thus at Monastir in 1914-1915, when the population had the choice of
taking flour from the Serbian Government or else the British Consul's
bread, which came from India, most of them--to save themselves
trouble--preferred the bread, though with the Serbian flour they could
have baked themselves just twice as much.... When Europe took up the
Macedonian problem towards the close of 1902 there had been a
considerable revolt, followed by an outburst of official ferocity and
the flight of some thousands of peasants. The Sultan, in the hope of
forestalling any Russian interference, promised various reforms. But
Russia and Austria proceeded to discuss what each of them would do in
Macedonia, and one resolve was that they also, being the two
"interested" Powers, would institute a scheme of reform. The Western
Powers for a time abdicated their responsibilities and left the
miserable Macedonians to the supervision of the two countries which,
as they themselves said, were the least disinterested. Now and then
the other Powers made a suggestion, as when Lord Lansdowne, who was in
favour of autonomy, made in January 1905 a number of proposals which
would have assisted the solution of the problem. But Austria and
Russia would only accept a part of his programme. Their own programme,
drawn up at Mürzsteg in September 1903, was plainly of a transitional
nature. It announced to the different Balkan peoples that the end of
their serfdom was approaching, and thus it accentuated their latent
rivalries and hostilities. Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian bands ravaged
the country.

"The Serbo-Bulgarian conflict," said Dr. Milovanović, a Serbian
Minister of Justice, "has its origin exclusively in the chauvinistic
circles of both countries. Macedonia is the battlefield." He said,
very rightly, that the population of Macedonia was equally near to
Serb and to Bulgar; but unhappily, in his efforts to establish a
_modus vivendi_, he proposed that Macedonia should be divided between
the two countries. Surely it is far better that it should become the
common possession of Serb and Bulgar, the link joining them to one
another. After Dr. Milovanović came the Balkan wars, of which the
second utterly destroyed for many a long day his hopes of an
understanding, since the experiences of the invaded Bulgars were
generally very different from those recorded by the careful
schoolmaster, Stavri Popoff, in his monograph, _The Self-Defence of
the Village of Ciprovci against the Serbo-Roumanian Invasion of 1913_
(Berkovica, 1915). This isolated village in the mountains was defended
by thirty old reservists, who possessed 100 guns and 15,000
cartridges. So pleased is their historian with the manner in which
they held their own--the rocks which surround Ciprovci are so many
natural fortresses--that he tells us not only the names of the thirty
warriors but those of the other inhabitants who carried milk and bread
to the outposts. On July 14, a Sunday, there was an exciting battle,
in the course of which the Bulgars suffered no human casualties, but
lost to the Serbs 900 sheep and a score of cattle, and this, says
Popoff, "made the women weep very much." As soon as possible a
telegram was sent to the War Office at Sofia, asking for
reinforcements, after which "their spirits rose to such a height that
they felt they could resist anything." On July 26 the Serbs were again
repulsed, but once more a number of sheep and cattle were carried off.
In conclusion the author thanks "all those who morally and materially
have helped and will help the cause," including the mayors of the
neighbourhood.

If the second Balkan War had not left memories more bitter than at
Ciprovci then the reconciling labours of those who follow Dr.
Milovanović would be less difficult. In our own day Mr. Leland
Buxton, working also for this union which eventually must come,
suggests in his _Black Sheep of the Balkans_[79] that Macedonia should
be made autonomous. But this would do no more than perpetuate the
wearisome and fierce intrigues of which exponents can be always found
in Balkan countries. Macedonia must become the common possession; and
what could be more desirable than that one of these countries should
administer the province in such a way as to attract the other country?
Marshal Mišić was of opinion that the officials whom the Serbs,
after the Balkan War, placed in Macedonia were too often not the kind
of men whom wisdom would have chosen; but there was as yet a general
eagerness to avoid being sent to those unalluring parts. The officials
left behind them such unhappy recollections that the Serbian army,
advancing through Macedonia in 1918, was received, as a rule, with
something less than delight. Fortunately the Yugoslav Government was
able, after these events, to induce a far superior class of officials
to serve in Macedonia, though I believe the scale of remuneration is
no higher than in the old kingdom. Men are selected who, in addition
to other qualities, speak the Turkish or Albanian of the district.
"You can count on our moral and material support, on all that we now
give to Turkey," said Mr. Balfour in 1903 to M. Svetislav Simić,
the Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who came as special envoy to
London "if," said Mr. Balfour, "you can come to an understanding with
the Bulgars on the one side and the Croats on the other." In many
Macedonian places one finds that priests and schoolmasters--I have
said this before but it will bear repetition--who officiated under the
Bulgars have been confirmed in their posts. How very different is this
from the policy of a few years ago when, for example, at Kriva (or
Egri) Palanka there was considerable propaganda with respect to the
school. While Macedonia was part of the Sultan's dominions there was,
on the whole, more willingness of Serbs and Bulgars to provide a
school than of the local population to frequent it.


FEROCITIES OF EDUCATION

A report of February 1901 says that in Rankovci three pupils came to
the teacher's house; in April of the same year the attendance has been
reduced to one pupil, who after coming regularly for a month decided
to keep away. In 1906 the peasants of that locality prevented a school
from being opened. At Kriva Palanka until the Balkan War the teachers
came from Kustendil--but how far they were patronized I do not know.
The three teachers from Serbia who appeared in 1909 seem to have spent
their time in promenading the village. Not until after the Balkan War
did pupils resort to them. In 1916 the same school taught Bulgarian.
In 1918 the Serbian language was resumed. These changes were
unfortunate for the child and still more so for the teachers, who were
continually being chased away or hanged. And now at last one finds the
Serbs so much in advance of what they and the Bulgars used to
practise. Their ex-Bulgarian schoolmasters are mostly of Macedonian
origin, so that it is not difficult for these gentlemen to give their
instruction in the kindred Serbian language, using, of course, the
local dialect. And we can look back with a smile to the not very
distant days when a zealous Serbian schoolmaster in Macedonia was
wont, instead of prayers, to make the children repeat after him three
times, every morning and every afternoon, "Ja sam pravo Serbin" ("I am
a true Serb"). Likewise the Bulgar was so certain of the superiority
of his religion that he deprived the Pomaks of their Moslem names,
giving them for Abdulla such a name as Anastasius. The Pomak, unable
to remember his new name, was handed a sheet of paper with a record of
the matter; but very few of these people can read.


THE STORM IS PAST

Gone for ever are the days of the Turkish censor when Danov, who sold
at Veles and Salonica the schoolbooks which at first he wrote himself,
was obliged to leave the name of Pushkin out of an anthology because
of its resemblance to pushka, a gun. And, with their more civilized
methods towards each other, we may be sure that the days have gone
when a Serb at Kumanovo could compel Moslem children, before uttering
the above-mentioned slogan, to cross themselves; while no Serbian
bishop will find himself confronted with such a problem as that which
in 1913 nonplussed the Bishop of Skoplje--certain Moslems had been,
against their will, converted by the Bulgars to Christianity and they
now requested the Bishop to undo what had been done. These days of
religious intolerance are as distant as those mediæval ones in Bohemia
when Roman Catholic nobles, many of them foreigners, succeeded after
the Battle of the White Mountain to the estates of the decapitated
Protestants and conducted themselves after the fashion of one Huerta,
an ennobled tailor of Spanish origin, who drove the peasants of his
district to Mass with the help of savage dogs.... In view of the
strides which have been made in so short a time we shall have in
Macedonia an example for the other Yugoslav lands. No longer then will
anyone complain like that old couple at Niš who, on the arrival of
the Bulgarian army in the winter of 1915-1916, announced that they
were Bulgars. "But what can you do with our daughter?" they asked,
"for she says resolutely that she is a Serb, since she has been to
the Serbian school." Both the Serbian and the Bulgarian people have,
in the last twenty or thirty years, been through the severest school.
Now, after an appropriate interval--some authorities say five and some
say a hundred years--they will be fellow-citizens in Yugoslavia. The
last serious conflict between them, which we will consider in the next
chapter, has been waged.

    FOOTNOTES:

    [Footnote 53: Of the three millions, which is estimated to
    have been the population of Macedonia at the time of the
    Great War, almost two millions were Slav, and it is to these
    only that we refer in using the term "Macedonians" in this
    chapter. Among the other inhabitants of the variegated
    province are Greeks and Turks and Circassians, Albanians
    (Tosks and Ghegs), Jews whose ancestors came from Spain,
    gipsies and Kutzo-Vlachs. A French observer said some years
    ago that Macedonia was a school of brigandage and ethnology.
    He said it was the prey of the Albanians and the
    professors--that is, of unconscionable savages and of
    laborious agents of all kinds of foreign propaganda. Even the
    Kutzo-Vlachs, which in Greek signifies "Limping Roumanians,"
    made their propaganda, or had it made for them. Gustav
    Weigand, a German professor who devoted himself very
    thoroughly to this people, used to wish us to believe that
    the Aromunes, as the Roumanians of the kingdom call their
    Macedonian relatives--another name to which they answer is
    Tsintsares--are free from all Greek blood. But this is not
    the case; they have become very hellenized, although it is
    true that there are some who call themselves Greek and who,
    besides having no such mixture in their veins, cannot speak a
    word of the Greek language. According to circumstances--and
    very much like the Serbo-Bulgarian Macedonians--this people,
    who number less than 100,000, have been accustomed to
    proclaim themselves now Greek and now Roumanian. They are a
    good example of the bad effects of propaganda, and this,
    added to the Turkish domination and the perpetual exodus of
    those who could manage to escape, has left in Macedonia a
    population that is generally more unsympathetic than any
    other in the Balkans. One may wonder, by the way, why the
    Roumanians should have put themselves to so much trouble with
    respect to these more or less hellenized kinsmen of theirs,
    not merely giving them direct support, but subsidizing
    Weigand's institution at Leipzig. A great reason was that
    King Charles, the friend of the German and Austro-Hungarian
    Empires, aimed at diverting the eyes of his statesmen from
    the unredeemed Roumanians in Transylvania.]

    [Footnote 54: But Macedonia is not the only part of
    Yugoslavia where a man's nationality varies. One Rejuka, for
    example, came to Veršac in the Banat. He was a Czech, but as
    at that period (1850-1860) everything German predominated, he
    preferred to be a German and sent his son to German schools.
    Then the boy learned Magyar at college and, long before he
    was appointed mayor, had become a Magyar. Thus we have three
    nationalities in two generations.]

    [Footnote 55: _Remarks on the Ethnography of the Macedonian
    Slavs._ London, 1906.]

    [Footnote 56: Quoted in Miss Waring's excellent little book
    _Serbia_. London, 1917.]

    [Footnote 57: This famous archæologist and publicist has been
    a leading authority on the eastern side of the Adriatic for
    more than forty years. We refer on p. 184, Vol. II., to what
    befell him in 1918-1919.]

    [Footnote 58: _Russkoje Bogatstvo_, 1899.]

    [Footnote 59: Cf. p. 79.]

    [Footnote 60: _Détruisez l'Autriche-Hongrie_, by Dr. Edvard
    Beneš. Paris, 1916.]

    [Footnote 61: Cf. "Secret Treaties," in the _Times_, March
    17, 1920.]

    [Footnote 62: Cf. _Die politischen Geheimvertrage
    Osterreich-Ungarns, 1879-1914_, by Dr. Alfred Pribram. Vienna
    and Leipzig, 1920.]

    [Footnote 63: Cf. _Diplomatic Reminiscences_, by M.
    Nekludoff. London, 1920.]

    [Footnote 64: Cf. _The Guardians of the Gate_. Oxford, 1918.]

    [Footnote 65: Cf. _Dalmatinische Reise_. Berlin, 1909.]

    [Footnote 66: Cf. _Montenegro in History, Politics and War_,
    by A. Devine. London, 1918.]

    [Footnote 67: Cf. _Diplomatic Reminiscences_. London, 1920.]

    [Footnote 68: A very detailed and interesting account is
    contained in Dr. Seton-Watson's _The Southern Slav Question_.
    London, 1911.]

    [Footnote 69: "That Austria, as some have stated, should have
    planned the _coup_," says Miss Durham (in her _Twenty Years
    of Balkan Tangle_) "is very improbable." This lady tells us
    that the plot was a very genuine one, "as I learnt beyond all
    doubt from my own observations," etc. And, needless to say,
    she denounces the Serbs, who in her eyes are a very criminal
    people. It is a pity that Miss Durham did not confine herself
    to the excellent relief work she was doing the Balkans. Her
    description of the travels this involved is interesting. But
    even her account of relief work is biased by a prejudice in
    favour of the Albanians and against the Slavs, for when she
    has occasion to speak of the famous Miss Irby, whose thirty
    years of untiring benevolence were spent among the Serbs of
    Bosnia and not among the Albanians, it is without a word of
    commendation.]

    [Footnote 70: Cf. _History of Serbia_, by H. W. V. Temperley.
    London, 1917.]

    [Footnote 71: Cf. _Le Monténégro Inconnu_, by Louis Bresse.
    Paris, 1920.]

    [Footnote 72: An illuminating document was found, after the
    Great War, in the Austrian archives. It is a lengthy report
    sent from Cetinje on November 1, 1911, by Baron Giesl, the
    Austrian Minister, to Count Aerenthal, the minister of
    Foreign Affairs. Giesl puts down very vividly a conversation
    he has had with Nikita, who suggested that the Minister
    should go forthwith to Vienna with the purpose of preparing
    for a secret treaty. "I will do all that Austria desires,"
    the King is reported to have said; "for instance, I will
    place under her protection the kingdom of Montenegro.... For
    years I have aimed at this and, in spite of all that has
    happened [the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina], I was
    preparing my people for this and putting Austria in a
    sympathetic light." The King promised that his army (whose
    numbers, says Giesl, he multiplied by two in this
    conversation) should act in perfect harmony with Austria's
    troops--they would, if need arose, assist each other. Baron
    Giesl appears to have irritated Nikita by his lack of
    enthusiasm for the scheme. "With Austria-Hungary, the King
    had said, "I must be frank and honest." But the Minister
    characterized his efforts as the throwing of dust in
    Austria's eyes.]

    [Footnote 73: The average German-Bohemian was, in July 1914,
    anxious that Austria should go to war. These people
    calculated that if Austria proved successful it would be
    advantageous to themselves, while if she were defeated they
    would merge themselves in the German Empire.]

    [Footnote 74: L. von Südland's _Die Südslavische Frage und
    der Weltkrieg_. Vienna, 1918.]

    [Footnote 75: _The Trial of the Authors of the Sarajevo
    Crime._ Presented according to the documents by Professor
    Pharos, with an Introduction by Professor Dr. Joseph Kohler.
    Berlin, 1918.]

    [Footnote 76: Cf. the admirably clear account in Dr. Lazar
    Marković's _Serbia and Europe, 1914-1920_. London, 1921.]

    [Footnote 77: Cf. _Ex-King Nicholas of Montenegro and his
    Court_ (Collection of eighteen original documents in
    facsimile). Sarajevo, 1919. "This collection of documents,"
    says the _Times_ (April 15, 1920), "goes far to dethrone the
    last of the Petrovich dynasty from his once picturesque
    position in the sympathies of Western admirers. Criticism
    directed against him during the Balkan wars fell on deaf
    ears; and the censorship to a great extent prevented the man
    in the street from realizing during the late War that an
    Allied Monarch was suspected of 'not playing the game.'" Mr.
    Ronald M'Neill, M.P., who loved to dance in front of
    Nicholas, informs us (in the _Nineteenth Century and After_,
    for January 1921) that "so far as the present writer has been
    able, after diligent endeavour, to discover, there never was
    any evidence whatever for the Serbian legend that King
    Nicholas was at any time during the War untrue to the Allied
    cause."]

    [Footnote 78: Cf. _Macedonia_, by H. N. Brailsford. London,
    1906.]

    [Footnote 79: London, 1920.]




V

THE EUROPEAN WAR

HOW THE AUSTRIANS WAGED WAR--THE SERBIAN PRINCES--THE TACTICS OF THE
MONTENEGRIN KING--THE MAGYARS AND THEIR PRISONERS--THE SOUTHERN SLAVS
IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY--HOW THE WAR RAGED IN THE WINTER OF 1914-1915--THE
TREATY OF LONDON, APRIL 1915--HOW BULGARIA CAME INTO THE WAR--ATTEMPT
TO BUY OFF THE SERBS--GREEK TRANSACTIONS--FLIGHT OF THE SERBS--THE
FAITHFUL CROATS--HOW THE SERBS CAME TO THEIR PATRIARCH'S TOWN--THE
SHADOW OVER MONTENEGRO--THE BROKEN SERBS AT CORFU--THE SOUTHERN SLAVS
IN THE UNITED STATES--CASH AND THE MONTENEGRIN ROYAL FAMILY---THE
BURDEN OF AUSTRIA'S SOUTHERN SLAV TROOPS--THE FAITHFUL ITALIANS--SOUTHERN
SLAVS IN THE AUSTRIAN NAVY--ADVANCE OF THE ALLIES IN MACEDONIA--HOW
THE MAGYARS TREATED THEIR SERBIAN SUBJECTS--THE SOUTHERN SLAVS PAY
PART OF THEIR DEBT TO THE HABSBURG MONARCHY: (_a_) IN SYRMIA; (_b_) IN
SLOVENIA.


HOW THE AUSTRIANS WAGED WAR

"Machen Sie Ordnung!" ["Put matters in order"] was the phrase used by
Austrian officers in Serbia when they wished a non-commissioned
officer to see that such and such Serbian civilians should be hanged
or shot. Occasionally an accident occurred, as when a priest near
Višegrad came to an officer with the request that his plum trees
should be spared, since he had nothing else. This officer intended to
be kind and, not knowing or forgetting the sense in which those three
words were being used, he said to a sergeant, "Machen Sie Ordnung!"
and the next morning a prominent citizen of Split, Count Pavlović,
whose post in the Austro-Hungarian army was that of a provost-marshal,
saw the priest, his wife and his three little boys hanging from the
plum trees. It was and is the fashion to assert that the Austrian army
was incomparably less brutal than the Prussian, so that some readers
will be disinclined to believe a conversation which Count
Pavlović, particularly as he is a Yugoslav, once had at Donja Tusla
in Bosnia with a certain Captain Waldstein, who between 9 a.m. and 1
p.m. had sentenced nineteen people to be hanged. These people, by the
way, were all over twenty years of age, so that each case had to be
tried; persons under that age could, as we have seen, also be hanged,
but not as the result of a trial. Pavlović approached the
captain--his rank, to be accurate, was captain-auditor--and asked him
how he had lunched after such a morning's work. "I felt," was the
reply, "as if I had drunk nineteen glasses of beer." An Austrian army
surgeon, Dr. Wallisch, who during the occupation travelled
professionally in Serbia and wrote a good deal about it in Viennese
papers and Austrian papers in Belgrade, said that "everywhere in this
Balkan and patriarchal environment you see educational mansions and
spacious barracks.[80] Does not this, better than anything else, show
the criminal, premeditated hostility of the Serbs against our
Monarchy? They have the longing to learn, which devours the ambitious,
and likewise the wish to realise by force of arms this fantastic ideal
of an over-excited national sentiment." Yes indeed, this was the ideal
of King Peter, in accordance with the device of the poet, Aksentie
Teodosijević: "Towards liberty, in the first place through learning
and culture, then with arms." Very few people would be inclined to
believe that the invading Austrians could be so petty as to burn all
the schoolbooks they came across, and still fewer would credit the
fact that Yugoslav patients with gold-filled teeth ran any special
risk in Austrian army hospitals. Ivo Stanišić of the Bocche di
Cattaro had fought with the Montenegrins and, in consequence of
Nikita's capitulation, had fallen into the Austrians' hands. He was
warned by his friends not to go into hospital, where his twelve gold
teeth, which he had acquired in the United States, might prove his
undoing. He did, as a matter of fact, die there, and the overdose of
morphia--witnessed by the well-known architect, Matejorski of
Prague--may have been accidental, and the Austrians who took his teeth
out may have thought it foolish to leave so much gold in a corpse.
Another Bocchesi who underwent the same treatment was one Risto
Liješević. Perhaps the Austrians do not deny these incidents,
and considering the trouble which they gave themselves to have a long
series of open-air brutalities officially photographed and made the
subject of picture postcards, one presumes that the dental operations
were omitted on account of the bother of indoor photography. The
postcards, of which I have a large collection, place on record the
procedure used in the wholesale hanging and shooting of Bosnian and
Serbian civilians, young and old, men and women. More trouble was
taken over the photographs, which are sometimes minute and sometimes
artistic in depicting a row of gallows on an eminence with gloomy
clouds behind them, than was taken with the manufacture of these
gallows, for in many cases they were no more than a seven-foot stake,
to the top of which the victim's throat was firmly fastened, holding
his or her feet a short distance from the ground. We have in the
London Press and in the House of Lords a number of reactionary persons
who do not cease regretting the disappearance of Austria-Hungary. The
new States, such as Yugoslavia and Czecho-Slovakia, they argue, are
very unsatisfactory, if only for the reason that they substitute a
lower civilization for a higher. Austrian culture, in their opinion,
is so different from that of the new States that you cannot compare
them. And when they talk of the Habsburg dynasty it is after the
fashion of old Francis Joseph who, in 1891, when the four hundredth
anniversary of the great Czech teacher Comenius was being officially
celebrated in all the schools of Prussia, commanded that nothing of
the sort was to be done in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, because his
attention had been drawn by Archbishop Schwarzenberg of Prague to a
Latin letter in which the great man uttered some sharp words
concerning the dynasty. One is prepared to overlook a great many
things which happened in the stress of war, but the postcards which
portray fashionably dressed women and girls strolling between the
gallows as if at a garden party and merely using their parasols
against the sun, do not appear to leave any attributes for a
civilization lower than that which they exhibit. The Bosniaks and
Serbs who were thus done away with were frequently even less to blame
than those ignorant peasants who, being told by their priests that
Peter was their King, shouted "Long live King Peter!" as the Austrian
troops marched through their villages, and were forthwith hanged for
high treason. "Whenever," says Euripides, "I see the wicked fall into
adversity I declare that the gods do exist." At Trnovo twenty-eight
were executed, including two women and at Palé, near Sarajevo,
twenty-six, the Austrians killing all the old folk and the children
who remained when the Montenegrin and Serbian armies retreated. Those
who were not murdered on the spot had a period of imprisonment during
which they were fed on white bread; but all that they were asked,
prior to their execution, was their name, their father's name and
their domicile. Thousands were interned--at Doboj between twenty and
thirty died every day of illness or of famine. The fate of the
abandoned children in Bosnia was such that when Dr. Bilinski, the
Governor (afterwards Minister of Finance in Poland) was told of it he
had the decency to weep. His informant was Madame Ćuk of Zagreb, so
well known to British travellers; this lady was at the head of an
organization which removed as many children as possible from Bosnia to
other parts of the Dual Monarchy. The diet of grass, cow's dung and a
kind of bread, chiefly composed of clay and wood-shavings and the bark
of trees, gave to nearly all the children a protruding stomach; they
were so weak that they would fall out of the luggage-racks of the
railway carriages, and with 500-600 children in three waggons it was
necessary to deposit some of them in the racks. At a place called
Sunia it was the ladies' custom to have cauldrons of maize and water,
as well as bacon, waiting for the travellers, but very often this food
brought on a colic, so unaccustomed were the children to fats.[81] If
the Austrians intended to put their Bosnian house in order by
finishing off the population--"Machen Sie Ordnung"--they made
considerable progress. They had hoped, before the War began, to send a
punitive expedition into Serbia that would finish off that insolent,
small country. Delirious was the enthusiasm of the Viennese at the
declaration of War. Fate was giving them the whitest of bread before
their execution.

The Austrian statesmen did not embark on the War without taking
certain precautions. Count Berchtold, on July 28, submitted for the
old Emperor's signature the war declaration, which explicitly stated
that the Government was forced to protect its rights and interests by
recourse to arms, the more so as the Serbian troops had already
attacked the Imperial and Royal soldiers at Temes-Kubin on the Danube.
After the Emperor had signed the declaration of war in this form,
Count Berchtold struck out the reference to a fight at Temes-Kubin,
and sent a letter to Francis Joseph explaining that he had taken it on
himself to eliminate this sentence as the reports had not been
confirmed. "It is clear," said the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_,[82] commenting
on the Austrian Red-book which revealed this affair, "it is clear that
the fight at Temes-Kubin never occurred, but was simply invented by
Count Berchtold. That arch-scoundrel not only deceived the people, but
also the Emperor. The destiny of the world depended upon whether an
eighty-four-year-old man permitted himself to be deceived. For such a
crime Berchtold must certainly be sent to prison, or, more justly, to
the gallows."

If the punitive expedition into Serbia had been less disastrous, it
would perhaps have been accompanied with less barbarity--though the
Austrian army was handicapped, owing to the large number of
aristocratic, and presumably more gentle, officers who found
themselves unable to leave the War Office and similar institutions in
Vienna. Yet the Austrians seem to have determined how to act before
they came. A special branch of the army occupied itself with the
stealing, packing and dispatching of cameras, engravings, ladies'
garments, etc. etc.--numerous lists were accidentally left behind in
Belgrade, and every sheet at the top left-hand corner was stamped
with the words "Sammlungs-Offizier" (_i.e._ Collection-officer). I do
not know what knowledge and what skill are necessary before this
rubber stamp is conferred upon a man. Did the Imperial and Royal
authorities regard him as a non-combatant? The "Sammlungs-Offizier"
might resent such a classification if in private life he had been a
courageous burglar. And the Imperial and Royal army, according to
certain "Instructions for the conduct of troops" which were found on a
wounded officer of the 9th Army Corps, had resolved--irrespective of
success or failure in the War--to massacre the Serbs without
compunction: "Any person encountered in the open, and especially in a
forest, must be regarded as a member of a 'band' that has concealed
its weapons somewhere, which weapons we have not the time to look for.
These people are to be executed if they appear even slightly
suspicious"; and another paragraph says that "I will not allow persons
armed, but wearing no uniform, whether encountered singly or in
groups, to be taken prisoners. They must be executed without
exception." The Austrians knew very well that the Serbs had not
received their new uniforms, and that at least one-third of their army
was obliged to take the field in ordinary peasant's dress.[83] The
fact that the Austrian invasion of north-western Serbia came to such
an ignominious end before September is no reason why so large a number
of women, children and old men were, as is very well authenticated,
cut to pieces, burned alive, despoiled of their eyes, their noses,
disembowelled, and so forth. One expects a certain amount of licence
from the baser elements of an invading army; but in Serbia--perhaps
because this was a punitive expedition--it seems to have been the
Imperial and Royal officers who egged on their men.... I have tried,
from the Austrian records, to ascertain whether any comparable
outrages can be laid at the door of the Serbs. And there is one
incident which utterly disgraces some of their Montenegrin brothers:
the men of Foča in Herzegovina joined the Montenegrin army when it
penetrated to the neighbourhood of Sarajevo. When it was thrown back
the Foča comrades--Yugoslavs, of course, and guilty of high treason
against Austria--accompanied them to Montenegro; and later on some
Montenegrin officers denounced the people of Foča to the Austrians,
with the result that fourteen of them were hanged.

On August 24, 1914, after twelve terrible days, the Austrians were
dislodged from Šabac and flung across to the northern bank of the
Save. More useful to the Serbs than their 6000 prisoners were the 50
cannons and over 30,000 rifles, for the Serbian troops had entered the
War with such scanty equipment that many of the regiments with an
effective strength of over 4000 men possessed only 2500 rifles. The
armed soldiers went into action, while the unarmed waited in reserve,
springing forward as their comrades fell, and taking up the weapons of
the fallen to continue the fight. Here occurred an incident of which
the hero was a boy. He had run away to the army and, to his vast
delight, been made a standard-bearer. When an officer perceived that
he was continuously exposing himself he told him to hide. "No one will
see you," said the officer. "But," answered the boy, "the flag will
see." And he was killed. Many of the dead or wounded Austrians were
Southern Slavs who had not been able to surrender to their brothers;
they were often found with all their cartridges intact, and with their
rifles made incapable of shooting.


THE SERBIAN PRINCES

One of the first results of this victory was the invasion, by Serb and
Montenegrin troops, of Bosnia. They succeeded in penetrating to within
a few miles of Sarajevo, and there they were held up not only by the
encircling forts but by the scarcity of their ammunition, for the
Russian supplies had not yet come through. "Your Royal Highness," said
a corporal one day to Prince George, the impetuous young man who had
resigned his position as heir to the throne and was at this moment far
more congenially occupied as the chief of an irregular band in the
mountains, "we have no more ammunition," said the corporal. "Each man
has a knife?" asked George. The corporal nodded. "Then let us go on."
The Prince has a great wound across his breast, from one side to the
other. He is very much the descendant of Kara George; he dislikes
making a secret of his opinions. King Peter, who was present at the
inauguration of the Belgrade synagogue, always refrained from entering
the Roman Catholic Church, since it was included in the buildings of
the Austrian Legation. His elder son was not averse, when relations
were strained, from taking an enthusiastic part in anti-Austrian
demonstrations, so that the Austrians were delighted to spread a
report that this ebullient youth had killed his orderly and must be
set aside from the succession. The truth was that George happened to
catch this orderly reading a private letter of his; in a sudden fit of
rage he struck him a blow, even as Kara George would have
done--unluckily the man rolled down some steps and from the resulting
injuries he died. A good many Austrian and German writers have said
that George is mad; he is certainly less fitted to govern Yugoslavia
than is Alexander, his brother. One remembers George, so dark and lean
and hawk-eyed, traversing the broad Danube at Belgrade in a most
original fashion; as the blocks of ice swept along he made his horse
leap from one of them to another. And one thinks of that more patient
prince, Alexander, poring for hours over papers of State, gazing up a
little wearily through his glasses, wondering for month after month
whether the crisis between Government and Opposition in Yugoslavia
will ever be solved. George will seek relaxation in driving a
motor-car as if the Serbian roads were a racing track; Alexander's
relaxation is to hear a new musical play, then to go home and repeat
the whole score by heart on his piano.

All through the War Alexander, the Prince Regent--for King Peter felt
himself, on account of his age and his rheumatism, unequal to anything save
the personal encouragement of his soldiers in the trenches[84]--throughout
the War Alexander was with his army. In his eloquent proclamations one
sees the student; on the battlefield he conquered his shyness. And
now he is a truly democratic King, at whose table very often is some
non-commissioned officer or private whose acquaintance he has made in
the War. He asked the man to come and see him one day in Belgrade, so
that the royal adjutants are always busy with this stream of warriors.
The men are well aware that their own peasant costume, with the
sandals, is admissible at Court--even at a ball you see some fine old
peasant, who is perhaps a deputy (and who does not, like a certain
Polish Minister of recent years, remove his white collar before
entering the Chamber). You can see him in his thick brown homespun
with black braiding, breeches very baggy at the seat and closely
fitting round the legs; as he comes in he knocks the snow from off his
sandals, and strides, perfectly at ease, across the Turkish carpets.
With such a man the King loves greatly to go hunting; last winter in
the Rudnik region the inhabitants were being plagued by wolves, so the
King went down there with some officers and peasants. Though he is so
short-sighted that he constantly wears glasses--if you met him
casually you would suppose that this keen-faced young officer was
probably a writer of military books--though he is short-sighted he is
one of the best shots in Europe. On the Slovenian mountains he has
brought down many chamois and, before he succeeded, at a summer resort
in Serbia he was always first at target practice. Nor is he less
skilled at cards, particularly bridge. He gathers round him the best
players in the town. Such are his relaxations after the long round of
audiences and hours of other work. During the day he will have very
likely undertaken to pay the expenses from his own pocket of another
Serbian student, at home or abroad. So many of them are his
pensioners. And it may be said without flattery that in the pursuit of
knowledge he affords them an example. His subjects number about 14
millions, but when in conversation I happened to allude to a remote
border village, his subsequent remarks made me wonder whether he had
just been reading an article about the chequered history of that
little place. He is, in fact, like his late grandfather of Montenegro,
the father of his people. But they have different ideas about the
duties of a father; and while Nikita's laugh was pretty grim, the
deep whole-hearted laugh of Alexander takes you into the sincere
recesses of the man.

During the Bosnian offensive there was launched an expedition over the
Save into the goodly land of Syrmia, one of those Yugoslav provinces
of which the Austro-Hungarian Empire was to be stripped. This
expedition had a varying success, for the assault that was attempted
in the neighbourhood of Mitrovica was not skilfully conducted; and the
Serbian army, for the first time in the War, was worsted. Then troops
in Bosnia, just before the grand attack on Sarajevo, were thrown into
confusion by an order from the Montenegrin King who, without vouching
any reason, called his army back. The Serbian troops had no other
course than to retreat as well; and their enemies delivered, all the
rest of September and throughout October, a tremendous thrust against
the army that was shielding Valjevo. The Serbs, who were lamentably
short of arms, munition, clothing and every sort of hospital
equipment, did not care to think of the approach of winter. They
hurled themselves against the Austrian swarms--and up to this period
they had lost, in dead and seriously wounded, more than 130,000 men.


THE TACTICS OF THE MONTENEGRIN KING

The co-operation between Serbs and Montenegrins for the Bosnian
campaign was the occasion of some of Nikita's usual devious diplomacy.
He summoned, as we have seen, a superfluous Skupština, whose
resolutions would enable him to go to Francis Joseph, his secret ally,
with a tale of _force majeure_. And he telegraphed to his grandson,
the Serbian Prince-Regent: "My Montenegrins and myself are already on
the frontiers, ready to die in the defence of our national
independence." While his ill-equipped warriors pushed on to Budva,
arrived before Kotor, seized Foča, Rogatica and other towns,
pressing on until they stood before the forts of Sarajevo, the
disreputable Royal Family, jealous as ever of Belgrade, were plunging
deeper and always deeper into treachery. The Serbian officers, General
Janković and Colonel (now General) Pešić, who, mainly at the
instance of Russia, had been sent to reorganize the Montenegrin army,
saw themselves hampered at every turn by the Court clique at Cetinje.
Janković, finding that orders were given without his knowledge,
returned to Niš; and later on, after the fall of Lovčen, Nikita
tried to foist upon Pešić the odium of a surrender which his own
machinations had brought about.


THE MAGYARS AND THEIR PRISONERS

As one might have expected, the withdrawal from Bosnia was followed by
a repetition of the reign of terror in that beautiful land of woods
and villages, where the Imperial and Royal authorities had been
engaged for years in showing foreign journalists exactly what they
wanted them to see. There had been some doubt as to whether
Bosnia-Herzegovina came under the crown of Austria or that of Hungary.
The Magyars had been gradually getting the upper hand in the
administration, and now, in the autumn of 1914, it was they who
undertook to deal with those subjected Bosniaks. Again we are
furnished with evidence galore, not this time by picture postcards but
by the cemeteries at Arad, the Hungarian (now it is a Roumanian) town
on the Maroš. It was in the casemates of the Arad fortress, many of
which had not been opened from the days of Maria Theresa, that
thousands of poor Bosniak civilians were interned. In one of the
cemeteries I counted 2103 black wooden crosses, in another between 600
and 700, in another about a thousand. These dead witnesses are more
eloquent than the living. "On October 31, 1915," says an inscription
on a cross in the largest cemetery, "there died, aged 95, Milija
Arzić." She may have been a fearful danger to the Magyar State.
Cross No. 716 says merely "Deaf and Dumb," so does No. 774. Jovan
Krunić, No. 706, was 1½ year old. There are children even
younger. The Magyars seem to have applied to Bosnia that label which
the monkish mediæval map-makers applied to the remoter peoples: "Here
dwell very evil men." If, however, the commandant, Lieut.-Colonel
Hegedüs--a magyarized version of the German _held_, which means
"hero"--and his subordinates, Sergeants Rosner and Herzfeld, would
claim that they did their best, they have some excuse in the fact that
although the 10,000 interned people began to arrive in July, the
first two doctors--who were also captives--did not appear until
January 1915. In the absence of medical advice the sergeants may have
thought it was an excellent plan, in November, to drive the prisoners
into the Maroš for a bath and then to walk them up and down the
bank until their clothes were dry; Hegedüs may have thought it was
most sanitary to have dogs to eat the corpses' entrails and sometimes
the whole corpse. Dr. Stephen Pop, a Roumanian lawyer in Arad
(afterwards a Minister at Bucharest), displayed his humanity by
drawing up a terrible indictment of the conditions. "You should be
glad," said Tisza, the reactionary Premier, to him, "very glad that
you can breathe the free air of Hungary." The casemates were provided
with less than three centimetres of straw, which was not removed for
months. Spotted fever, pneumonia and enteritis were the chief
epidemics: those who were guilty of some offence, such as receiving a
newspaper, would be put among the spotted fever cases. Sometimes the
dead were left for two or three days with the living. Such was the
state of the bastions and their underground passages that the Magyar
soldiers came as rarely as they could manage. It was, said Hegedüs, a
provisional arrangement to have about a thousand people in one of
these passages or lunettes, with no lavatory. But it was not only the
nonagenarians--several of whom were at Arad--that found their life was
a very provisional affair. You could be killed in different ways: the
dying were occasionally wrapped in a sheet and rocked against a wall.
When they groaned the soldiers laughed, and said that this was
"Cheering King Peter." In fact the Magyars behaved with rare
generosity to their prisoners, we are told in the _Oxford Hungarian
Review_ (June 1922), by Mr. Aubrey Herbert, M.P., a gentleman who
persists in writing of that which he does not know. A woman called
Lenka (or Helen) Mihailović, who had kept the canteen in the
fortress during fifteen years, was expelled in January 1916 for having
helped to clothe some naked children. People used to give Rosner, the
sergeant, a tip in order to be allowed to visit the canteen. Their
ordinary food was the reverse of appetizing. Constantine, the son of
Ilja Jovanović, a boy who used to be employed at the fortress (and
who had not been permitted by the Magyars to learn his own language),
saw the children being fed, very often, on salt fish--no matter
whether they were ill or not--and sometimes on the intestines of
horses. The Serbian grave-diggers used to cook themselves a dish of
grass, salt and water. They were too weak to work, and they had work
enough: on February 1, 1915, for instance, twenty-nine people were
buried. A certain captain (afterwards Major) Lachmann, an Austrian
officer, arrived in Arad and heard the apprehensions that an epidemic
might spread from the fortress. This had, in fact, been debated by the
town council; and Lachmann was eventually responsible for a commission
of inquiry. But Hegedüs, although he was degraded and condemned to
prison, made a successful appeal, for his father-in-law was a
field-marshal, one Pacor.

A few improvements were made in the casemates towards the end of 1917,
as a Spanish commission was expected. But it never came. Some of the
long galleries have, since the Armistice, been furnished with windows
and electric light; but about four months after the Armistice I found
them full of dead flies and heavy with an abominable stench. Amid the
débris were many lamps, such as one uses in a mine. There was a
proclamation, dated 1918, which tried to lure deserters back; it
promised that no punishment would be inflicted on them if they should
return, but that robbery or murder would meet with capital punishment,
either by shooting or by strangling. The floor was littered with all
kinds of paper, with scraps of furniture, a few chains and some prison
books, which dated back for years. These gave details of all the
punishments and were written in a very ornamental script, as though
the clerks had taken a pleasure in their work. The Arad fortress had
been partly used as a prison for a long time; but Misko Tatar, a
Magyar, who stayed there sixteen years for having murdered his
fiancée, his mother and his sister, as well as one Kocian, who
remained for more than eighteen years--he had murdered the proprietor
of a canteen, his wife and child in the Bocche--and Rujitatzka, a
Croat, who together with another man had been accused of theft, had
killed their escort and thrown his body into the Danube--none of these
culprits could remember having heard of such punishments as the
Bosniak civilians had to bear. The iron ring from which people used to
be suspended for a couple of hours could still be seen on a large
tree. If the relatives or friends could pay a fine this penalty was
discontinued. Another method was to fasten a man's right wrist to his
left ankle and the left wrist to the right ankle. He would then be
left for a week; every night a blanket was thrown over him. But there
is something very strange in the composition of the Magyars. When the
revolution broke out and the prisoners, after all the years of horror,
were gaining their freedom, an acquaintance of mine, a certain
Gavrić, whose job for three and a half years had been the
comparatively pleasant one of cleaning boots, was on the point of
leaving the prison. There he was met by the director's daughter. "And
you an intelligent person!" she said. "Are you not ashamed of
yourself?" The Hungarian newspapers wrote that Hegedüs was dead, which
may or may not have been true; and in another paper, _The Hungarian
Nation_, printed in English, in February 1920, the Rev. Dr. Nally
said: "May we not still cling to the hope that chivalrous England will
give a helping hand to the nation whose weakness is that she is too
chivalrous?" One Englishman--whom the reader may or may not consider
worth quoting--is with the Magyars. "No country," says Lord
Newton,[85] "treated their prisoners of war so well as the Hungarian,
and I know it, because looking after prisoners of war was my job." "My
husband," says Lady Newton,[86] "had interested himself in their
cause"--of "this delightful race," she terms them in the previous
sentence--"and had been able to do their country some slight service,
and for this they simply could not sufficiently show their gratitude
towards ourselves. From the prince to the peasant the Hungarian is a
_grand seigneur_, with all the instincts of a great gentleman and the
manners of a king." May I mention that at the same time, I believe, as
Lord and Lady Newton were being entertained, a poor Slovak was being
differently treated. Having left his home in Hungary to serve in the
Czecho-Slovak army, and having settled in Czecho-Slovakia, after the
War he got word that his mother was dying. He thereupon applied for
and received a Hungarian visa, and on entering that territory he was
arrested! A long time afterwards the Czecho-Slovak Legation at
Buda-Pest was vainly trying to have him liberated.


THE SOUTHERN SLAVS IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY

From the beginning of the War the Imperial and Royal authorities had
been exasperated by the Southern Slavs within the Empire. A few
extracts from the archives which, after the end of the War, were found
at Zagreb, will be of interest:


(A)

[_In Serbo-Croat:_] TELEGRAM FROM THE COMMANDER OF THE BALKAN ARMY,
RECEIVED IN ZAGREB, 3/10/1914

[_In German:_] HIS EXCELLENCY THE BAN BARON
SKERLECZ, ZGB. [ZAGREB].

sss. TUZLA, 387, 146, 2/10/05.

Res. No. 817/ok. Investigation by Lieut.-Field-Marshal Szurmay has
demonstrated that our soldiers have been shot at from houses in
Bežanija to the west of Semlin and that enemy troops have been
given shelter. In accordance with the request of Lieut.-Field-Marshal
Szurmay I urgently request that all male inhabitants over fifteen
years of age shall be evacuated from this place and from all others in
which similar incidents have occurred, that measures be taken without
delay in the interior of Croatia, and a stern examination be carried
out in association with the Zagreb military command as also with the
Army group command of Petrovaradin, acting in conjunction with the
Government Commissary Hideghethy. Guilty persons are to be handed over
to the military court for legal treatment.

Identical copies to the Ban of Croatia, Slavonia and Government
Commissary Baron Tallian and, for his information, to Lieut.-Field-Marshal
Szurmay as well as to the Army group command of Petrovaradin.

POTIOREK, Field-Marshal.


(B)

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL ARMY--DIRECTOR OF SUPPLIES AND TRANSPORT.
K. No. 114.

TO THE ROYAL GOVERNMENT COMMISSARY
BRCKO, on the 12th September 1914.

VUKOVAR.

I have the honour to inform you that during these last days the
railway near Mitrovica has been damaged by the artillery of the
Serbian army, which would be almost incredible without signals made by
the local population, and moreover that between Ruma and Indjija--that
is to say in a part occupied by our troops--the permanent way has been
injured, which in all probability was done by the people of that
district.

These events and anyhow the general atmosphere in Syrmia make it
necessary to take the most energetic steps, as indicated in the orders
of the Imperial and Royal Prime Minister No. 6538/1914 and of the No.
913 of 1914.

       *       *       *       *       *

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL 5TH ARMY--DIRECTOR OF
SUPPLIES AND TRANSPORT.
K. No. 114.


(C)

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL MILITARY COMMAND IN ZAGREB.

PRESS BUREAU, No. 2590.
TO THE HIGHER COMMAND OF THE ARMY.
HIGHER COMMAND OF THE BALKAN FRONT.
ROYAL MILITARY PRESS BUREAU.

ZAGREB, _November_ 2, 1914.

_/Ceteris exmissis./_

"Thousands of loyal officers and men have fallen victims to the
treachery that has penetrated so deeply into the Fatherland and is
directed against our enthusiastic, brave and heroically fighting army.
It is evident from all the reports of the wounded that no one has been
afraid of the enemy troops, but rather of treachery which comes upon
them from the front, the left, the right, the rear, from trees and
from houses." ...

"Through treachery the foe was and is still made acquainted with
every movement of troops, the enemy artillery is helped in every way
through signals, so that it can direct upon us a fire that falls like
lightning. Light signals, smoke signals, positions of church tower
clocks, herds of cows, flocks of geese, imitations of the noises of
animals, yellow and black flags, etc. etc., have indicated the
strength and movements of troops." ...

SCHEURE, Lieut.-Field-Marshal.


(D)

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL MILITARY COMMAND IN ZAGREB.

PRESS BUREAU, No. 3050.

_The Spreading of Disquieting News among the Population._

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE IMPERIAL AND
ROYAL SECRET COUNCILLOR DR. IVAN
BARON SKERLECZ, Ban of the Kingdom of
Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia.

ZAGREB, _November_ 26, 1914.

[This document, signed by Lieut.-Field-Marshal Scheure, draws
attention to a secret society in Zagreb which from the beginning of
the War is said to have been circulating false reports, not only with
reference to "the most incredible news of our troops being defeated,"
but also as to the attitude of neutral States and of our own tried and
excellent commanders, who are said to "have practised treachery,
followed by suicide." The Ban's attention is directed to the
introduction of hostile newspapers, and he is asked to have the
foreign consuls in Zagreb discreetly watched. He is also told that in
Zagreb the bank officials are said to have discouraged the citizens
from investing in war loans.]


(E)

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL MILITARY COMMAND IN ZAGREB.

PRESS BUREAU, No. 3297.

[Another note to the Ban, dated December 10, 1914, on the same
subject. It is recommended that the persons chiefly responsible for
these false reports be apprehended and interned, either on the charge
of espionage or on account of having agitated. The Government is
asked by the military command to have all such reports assembled,
together with an appeal to loyal citizens, in an article which every
newspaper should print twice, in successive numbers. At the same time
all the newspapers should be told to print inspiring articles, and an
article of this kind should be sent in for approval by the Government
and the military command. The signature at the bottom of this note is
undecipherable.]


(F)

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL MILITARY COMMAND IN ZAGREB.

PRESS BUREAU, No. 841.

ZAGREB, _February_ 1915.

[This is a long and conscientious exposé by the military commandant of
Zagreb of the political situation there and in Croatia generally. He
mentions that when in June 1913 several men deserted from the 4th
company of the 53rd Infantry Battalion, which belonged to the 8th
Mountain Brigade, it was not thought to have any special significance.
"When," says the writer, "I happened to express my astonishment that
Croats should desert to Serbia, I received the following answer: 'The
Croats are loyal, but the Emperor does not care for us; the Magyars do
not understand us and we also do not wish to become Magyars. Therefore
the Croats turn to the Serbs, who at least understand their language.'
At that time," he continues, "I did not understand these words, but
now that I have become more acquainted with this country, I see that
they reveal everything. Alas, so many Croats have adopted this popular
logic and seem to incline to the Serbs."

He explains that harmonious relations did not exist between the
military command and the local government, since the former acted
without taking into account the political position of any individual,
while the latter acted in the reverse fashion.]


HOW THE WAR RAGED IN THE WINTER OF 1914-1915

In the winter of 1914 the Serbian army had been obliged to withdraw,
leaving Valjevo to the Austrians. The retrograde movement had to
continue; Belgrade was abandoned at the end of November, and the
people from those northern and western parts of the country could not
resign themselves to waiting for the enemy, after the manner in which
he had behaved. Terror-stricken fugitives began to block the roads and
to impede the movements of the army. Everywhere was panic. It is
remarkable that the Serbian Government at Niš chose this time
(November 24) for making to the National Skupština the first
Declaration[87] that they proposed to carry on the War until "we have
delivered and united all our brothers who are not yet free, Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes." (Later on when old King Peter after many trials
managed to reach Durazzo he was given a few hours' notice in which to
leave that place; he was also thrust out of Brindisi by the Italians
because he declined to repudiate this Declaration.) "Machen Sie
Ordnung" would soon be heard. Even the army, unaccustomed to defeat,
was losing its self-possession. Putnik, the revered old strategist,
declared that he could do no more. No longer in his over-heated room,
struggling with asthma, could the famous marshal evolve a plan. And
then it happened that General Mišić, placed in command of the first
army, determined, after studying the situation, to risk everything on
a last throw. Mišić was a quiet, methodical little man, whose optimism
was always based on knowledge--in the intervals between Serbia's
former campaigns he had won distinction as Professor of Strategy. He
now caused 1400 young students, the flower of the nation, to be
appointed non-commissioned officers; he likewise produced a most
brilliant scheme of operations, so that the whole army was fired with
enthusiasm, and so irresistibly did they attack that by December 13
not a single armed Austrian remained in the country. Ernest Haeckel,
the great professor, had said at Jena that the native superiority of
the German nation conferred on them the right to occupy the Balkans,
Asia Minor, Syria and Mesopotamia, excluding from these parts the
weaker and inferior peoples who were living there. On December 15 King
Peter made a triumphal entry into Belgrade--a Hungarian flag which
had floated from the Palace was employed as a carpet on the steps of
the cathedral when the King proceeded thither with his generals to
give thanks for the miraculous success of Serbia's army. Once more the
famous little town, the "white town" that is throned so splendidly
above the plain where two wide rivers meet, was in possession of the
Serbs. Against this rampart many human waves have broken--Attila and
his Huns encamped on the plain, the Ostrogoths appeared, Justinian
built the city walls, then came the Avars and Charlemagne and the
Franks, the Bulgars, the Byzantines, the Magyars. The white town, Beli
Grad or Beograd, which we call Belgrade--Wizzenburch was the old
German name--has a glorious past and surely a magnificent future.

When the Serbs came back to Belgrade in December 1914, the total of
Austrian prisoners was more numerous than the Serbian combatants. But
35,000 of these prisoners, together with 250,000 Serbs of all ages and
106 Serbian and Allied doctors, were now to succumb to the plague of
typhus, which the Austrian troops had carried from Galicia. Hospitals
were hurried out from France and Great Britain; heroic work was done
by women and by men; doctors operated day and night--in the hospitals
the patients were so closely packed that it was impossible to step
between them.

"In Skoplje," says Colonel Morrison, who in civil life is senior
surgeon to the Queen's Hospital, Birmingham--"in Skoplje a British
unit was installed in a large factory accommodating over 1000 medical
and surgical patients. Besides their inherent unsuitability the
premises were detestably insanitary and the floor space overcrowded to
its utmost capacity. On the ground floor I saw 250 men lying on sacks
of straw packed closely together, covered only by their ragged uniform
under a blanket. Gangrenous limbs and septic compound fractures were
common, the stench being overpowering; yet every window was closely
shut." He tells how seven out of the members of the British staff went
down with typhus. At Užice he found over 700 patients crammed into
rooms containing about 500 beds; many were lying on the bare floor;
others were on sacks of straw; others on raised wooden platforms in
series of six men side by side. Often one would see an elderly
warrior, who had been wounded a week or two previously, being jolted
along in an ox-cart with several civilians who were suffering from
typhus--all trying to find a hospital that could take them in. And
meanwhile it was necessary to reorganize the army: all the men between
the ages of seventeen and fifty-five were called to the colours,
including those whom the doctors had declared to be totally unfit for
military service.


THE TREATY OF LONDON, APRIL 1915

On April 26, 1915, the negotiations were concluded between France,
Great Britain, Russia and Italy; the Treaty of London was signed and
the Italians had become our Allies. By this Treaty we and France and
Russia undertook to give them, if we were victorious, a very large
increase of territory--over which, by the way, we none of us had any
right of disposal.

["For Serbia and for Montenegro this is a war of defence and of
liberation and not of conquest," said the Yugoslav Committee in London
(May 1915)--which Committee, by the way, made its first headquarters
in Rome, and only transferred itself to London and Paris in view of
the frankly hostile attitude of Sonnino and his colleagues. It
consisted of the prominent Croats and Slovenes who had managed to
escape across the Austrian frontier. "Serbia and Montenegro," said the
Committee, "fight to liberate our people from a foreign yoke and to
unite them in one sole, free nation.... To perpetuate the separation
of these territories in leaving them under the Austro-Hungarian
domination or another foreign domination, would be in flagrant
violation of our ethnographic, geographic and economic unity; our
people would, without any doubt, oppose to it an energetic and
justified resistance."] At other times during the nineteenth century
the Great Powers made amongst themselves and without consulting the
Small Powers certain arrangements which affected the latter, although,
as Professor Westlake observes,[88] all the States, so far as their
sovereignty is concerned, stand equal before the law. But these
arbitrary arrangements had always been made in the interest and for
the security and well-being of the weaker State, as, for example, when
the Congress of Berlin decided on the independence of Roumania and
Serbia, in accordance with the will of the people. This beneficent
action on the part of the Great Powers infringed none of the
principles of international law, whereas the Treaty of London took
away from the smaller Power nearly everything of value it possessed
and stripped it of the possibility of future greatness; the spoil was
presented by the Great Powers to one of themselves. We may concede, as
Mr. C. A. H. Bartlett of the New York and United States Federal Bar
points out in his closely reasoned monograph[89]--we may concede that
belligerents can by way of anticipation allot enemy land among
themselves, yet such a compact cannot properly be exercised by them so
as to work injustice to another ally who was not a party to the
division of territory. From the first it was well understood that the
Treaty of London could only be imposed in direct defiance of the
wishes of the populations most immediately concerned, so that the
Italian Cabinet insisted that the whole transaction should be kept
from the knowledge of the Serbian Government. As an illustration of
the domineering and extortionate nature of Italy's demands (to which
the Entente submitted) one may mention that part of the proposed
boundary was traced over the high seas beyond the three-mile limit,
which of course was a proposition entirely at variance with
international law. We should not forget, says the _Spectator_,[90] the
whole Italian record of idealism and liberal thought. And Mr. G. M.
Trevelyan, an Italian exponent,[91] remarks that the terms of the
Treaty of London were unknown to the people who paraded the streets
of Rome impatient for their country to enter the War, and threatening
with death the Minister Giolitti who had hitherto succeeded in keeping
them out of it. The grandiose bargain which the Government had made
was unknown to them; but surely Mr. Trevelyan is paying meagre tribute
to their idealism and liberal thought when he implies they would have
been elated by a knowledge of the details of the Treaty. Ought not,
rather, a people imbued with the afore-mentioned virtues to have
threatened with death a Minister who should attempt to carry through
so scandalous an instrument? "The broad reason why the Italians joined
our side," says Mr. Trevelyan, "was because they were a Western, a
Latin and a Liberal civilization." Mr. Bartlett, who ponders his words
with legal precision, thinks that "Italy was not inspired by any very
noble principles of right and justice when the War began, nor until
long after it had swept over the greater portion of Europe ... nor was
she spontaneously moved by any sentiment of human justice. She was
cool, calculating and business-like. She weighed carefully in the
balance the advantages and disadvantages she might derive from the
pending struggle; she saw on which side the profit might lie, and with
that commercial prudence for which her people are renowned she set her
own price on the value of her aid to the Entente." But if the long
hesitation was nothing more than governmental prudence, and if the
nation as a whole was out of sympathy with such ideas, how came it
that, after the plunge was taken, no less than 300 deputies left their
cards on Signor Giolitti? The country was, through various causes,
swept into the War; and in considering whether this was in harmony
with or in opposition to the desires of the majority I think one
should pay at least as much attention to the deputies who acted as to
the crowd who shouted.... The country was swept into the War, and a
Bologna newspaper (_Resto del Carlino_, March 21, 1915) has published
a telegram from Sonnino to the Italian Ambassadors in Paris, London
and Petrograd, which announced that Italy was joining in the World War
for the purpose of destroying the strategical advantage enjoyed by
Austria in the Adriatic. But at the same time the Southern Slavs must
be prevented from gaining a similar position, and so the coast must be
neutralized from Kotor to the river Vojuša. Sonnino expressly gives
Rieka to the Croats. It is not only this which lends great interest to
the document, but the fact that Italy's entrance into the War was
determined five weeks before the signing of the Treaty of London and
two months before she actually declared war.


HOW BULGARIA CAME INTO THE WAR

In the course of the year 1915 Ferdinand of Bulgaria, with his
henchman Radoslavoff, was arranging to come into the War. Public
opinion in that country was smarting under the drastic Treaty of
Bucharest, which had been imposed by the victors of the second Balkan
War. It was Roumania which had inflicted the shrewdest wound by taking
the whole of the Dobrudja as a recompense for a military promenade,
during which she lost a few men who deserted, and a few officers who
were shot in the back. The Dobrudja is a land whose people cause it to
resemble a mosaic--Greeks, Turks, Roumanians, Tartars, Bulgars,
Armenians and gipsies are to be found--but the southern parts are
undoubtedly Bulgarian. After the great outcry which the Bulgars had
raised over the surrender of one town, Silistra, it can be imagined
that the loss of the whole land came as an unendurable sentence. Quite
apart from Bulgaria's Macedonian aspirations, it was felt in Belgrade
that Ferdinand, by pointing to the Dobrudja, would be able to drive
his kingdom into an alliance with the Central Powers, an alliance
whose aim, as far as he was concerned, was to leave him Tzar of the
Balkans. The photograph which he circulated of himself, seated in a
splendid chair upon a promontory by the Black Sea, wearing the
appropriate archaic robes, and with a look of profound meditation on
his otherwise Machiavellian features, was exactly what he thought a
Balkan Tzar should be.

The Serbs were in favour of delivering an attack upon the Bulgars
before they had mobilized and concentrated their troops. This would
not have warded off the Teutonic invasion, but the Serbs would have
been able to maintain contact with Salonica, thus facilitating the
evacuation of their army. And who knows whether this diversion would
not have induced the Greeks and the Roumanians to change their
attitude? However, the proposal was vetoed by Serbia's great Allies,
who thought that their diplomacy might work upon the Bulgars. Many
worthy people said that it would be quite inconceivable for the
Bulgarian army to oppose the Russian, seeing that this would be
terrible ingratitude. But they forgot that if the Russians had been,
not for purely altruistic motives, the kind patrons of the Bulgars,
they had recently--when the Tzar Nicholas and the Tzarina came to the
Constanza fêtes--made open cause with Bulgaria's opponents. They were
also forgetting, rather inexcusably, that the Bulgars were averse to
the idea of the Russians securing Constantinople. On the other hand,
the old pro-Russian sentiments of the people still survived: the
Russian Legation at Sofia received numerous applications to serve in
the army; large contributions were made to the Russian Red Cross, and
public prayers were offered for the success of the Russian arms. But
the Muscovite Minister at Sofia was a man unfitted for the post, and
Ferdinand's task was made easier. The Allied diplomats could argue,
later on, that they failed by a narrow margin, since Radoslavoff only
succeeded in gaining a majority by means of the help of the Turkish
deputies; but if the Sobranje had been hostile to Ferdinand and
Radoslavoff they would simply have dissolved it. As a pattern of
morals Dr. Radoslavoff is not worth quotation--the offences for which
during a previous Premiership he was convicted were rather
flagrant--but his views on international politics are quite
instructive. On November 14, 1912, he wrote to his friend Mavrodieff,
the prefect of Sofia, a letter which was afterwards reproduced in
facsimile. "It is clear," he said, "that Russian diplomacy is
disloyal. It wants Constantinople.... But it is not only Russia which
envies Bulgaria; the same thing is true for Austria-Hungary and
Germany. The Balkan Union has surprised them, and they will seek a new
basis in their future politics...." But then the second Balkan War and
the Treaty of Bucharest enabled Ferdinand to commit his country to an
alliance which various of his statesmen and generals vehemently
deprecated. "If the Germans should win," telegraphed Tocheff, the
Minister at Vienna, in August 1915, "that would be still more
dangerous for Bulgaria."

Ferdinand was sure that the Austro-Germans would succeed in conquering
the Serbs. On October 6, after a treacherous artillery preparation,
the two armies began to cross at various points the Danube, the Save
and the Drin. Their losses in the hand-to-hand engagements may have
reminded them of a phrase in the official explanation that was issued,
after the rout of the previous December, by the Viennese authorities:
"The retirement of our forces after their victorious offensive in
Serbia has given birth to divers rumours for the most part entirely
without foundation.... It was inevitable that we should have important
losses in men and material." So it was on this occasion--at Belgrade,
for example, thousands were killed as they struggled to the shore--in
a broad street leading down to the harbour a brigade of Skoplje
recruits plunged through the Austrians with their knives. But in the
end, on October 10--and in spite of heroic work on the part of some
French and British naval detachments--Belgrade fell. On October 12 the
Bulgars attacked. "The European War is drawing to its close," said
Ferdinand's proclamation. "The victorious armies of the Central Powers
are in Serbia and are rapidly advancing." They advanced less rapidly
than they had planned, thanks to the wonderful exploits of the Serbian
army, which was heavily encumbered by the growing stream of fugitives.
The Austro-Germans failed to encircle the Serbian troops--slowly and
keeping in touch with those who were on the Bulgarian frontier, the
Serbs retired to the south and west.


ATTEMPT TO BUY OFF THE SERBS

The Government and the diplomatic corps had been for some time at
Niš, the second largest town, whose Turkish character is
disappearing. But the population in the direst Turkish times were less
exposed to epidemics than the thousands of unwilling residents who
thronged the little, painted houses and the wide, cobbled streets in
1915. It was at Niš that the negotiations were conducted with
Bulgaria, and in July an aged gentleman from Budapest came with the
offer of a separate peace. This gentleman, a stockbroker of Slav
origin, was imbued with patriotic motives, for he was assured that
Germany would win the War. It was an undertaking in those days for a
man in his seventy-sixth year to travel, by way of Roumania and
Bulgaria, to Niš; but as he had connections in Serbia he was
resolved to see them, and he travelled at his own expense, although
the German Consul-General at Buda-Pest, acting apparently for the
Deutsche Bank, had spoken of 18 million crowns for distribution among
the politicians at Niš and five millions for the old stockbroker
himself. His suggestion was that Serbia should make certain small
modifications in the Bucharest Treaty in favour of the Bulgars, that
Albania should be hers up to and including Durazzo, that she should be
joined to Montenegro, and that her debts to the Entente should be
shouldered by Germany, which would likewise give a considerable loan,
and requested merely the permission to send German troops down the
Danube. "My dear boy," said a Minister, an old friend of his, "go back
at once, or they'll lock you up in a mad-house." And when the poor old
gentleman got back he found himself compelled to start a lawsuit
against the Germans, since they were unwilling to pay his costs. The
Consul-General at Pest disowned all knowledge of him, but the broker
called in the police as witnesses; for they had summoned him, on more
than one occasion, to explain why he was so much in the Consul's
company. The German Government said also that he was a perfect
stranger to them; but finally they settled with him for a sum which is
believed to have been 35,000 crowns.


GREEK TRANSACTIONS

One reason why the Entente had dissuaded the Serbs from attacking
Bulgaria was to prevent the _casus fœderis_ with Greece being
jeopardized. This treaty between Greece and Serbia would become
operative by a Bulgarian aggression--and the fox-faced M. Gounaris
when he was Prime Minister of Greece in August 1915 assured the
Allied Powers that Greece would never tolerate a Bulgarian attack upon
Serbia. It was largely on the strength of this assurance that, when, a
little later, the attitude of Bulgaria grew menacing and the Serbian
General Staff suggested marching upon Sofia and nipping the Bulgarian
mobilization in the bud, the then Russian Foreign Minister, M.
Sazonov, supported in this by Sir Edward Grey, warned Serbia not to
take the initiative. Serbia yielded to the demands of her great
Allies, only to see herself abandoned by the Greeks. King Constantine
and probably the greater part of his people were anxious to remain
outside the war. And to free himself from the embarrassing Treaty with
Serbia he declared that it would only have applied if Serbia had been
attacked by the Bulgars. [We may say that it was doubtful whether the
_casus fœderis_ arose when Serbia was attacked by Austria; but it
clearly and indubitably did arise when she was attacked by Bulgaria.
When Venizelos spoke of the obligations of Greece towards Serbia, a
certain Mr. Paxton Hibben, an American admirer of Constantine, said in
his book, _Constantine I. and the Greek People_ (New York, 1920), that
Venizelos was making an appeal to the sentimentality of his
countrymen!] So Constantine proclaimed that Greece was neutral--"Our
gallant Serbian allies," he declared some five years later, when he
returned from exile, "Our gallant Serbian allies"; and the Athenian
mob--

                                    August Athena! where,
    Where are thy men of might, thy grand in soul?
    Gone.[92] ...

--the Athenian mob cheered itself hoarse. One word from Constantine
and they would have wrecked the Serbian Legation and the French and
the British for the terrible bad taste of not exposing their flags.
But Constantine, clutching his German Field-Marshal's baton (or
perhaps it was the native baton given to the royal leader who in the
Balkan War wiped out some of the ignominy with which the previous
Turkish War had covered him), at any rate Constantine restrained
himself. Why the devil couldn't these Serbs understand that they were
his gallant allies! Let them wipe out the unhappy past. Had they
never heard of that magnificent French actress who, being asked about
the paternity of her son, replied that she really did not know?
"Alas!" she said, "I am so shortsighted." Well, it was true that in
1915 he had been neutral and unable to tolerate the presence of
Serbian soldiers on his territory; if they found themselves obliged to
leave their country and retreated by way of Greece he gave orders to
have them disarmed. This was the attitude imposed upon a neutral. And
thousands and thousands of them had unfortunately died in consequence
while passing over the Albanian mountains. "Our alliance with Serbia,"
quoth the King while opening the Chamber in 1921--"our alliance with
Serbia now drawn closer as the result of so many sacrifices and heroic
struggles...." The son of the eagle, as his people call him, stopped a
moment, but could hear no laughter. As for his policy in 1915, he had
been perhaps a neutral lacking in benevolence. If he and his Ministers
did not actually refuse to receive the non-combatant young Serbs they
very certainly did not go out of their way to offer any shelter to
these erstwhile little allies in distress, when the alternative to
Greece was wild Albania. Twenty thousand Serbian children lost their
lives upon those bleak and trackless mountains.[93] It was most
unfortunate. And in the Cathedral of Athens, in the gorgeous presence
of the clergy and the more responsible sections of the population, the
King chuckled to himself as he was acclaimed with cries of "Christos
aneste!" (Christ is risen!). After all, those 20,000 Serbian boys
would not have lived for ever. These excellent Athenians were resolved
that bygones should be bygones. It was perfectly true that British
soldiers and French, entrapped and shot down by his command, were
buried away yonder in Piræus cemetery. He felt like having a good
laugh, but if you are a King you must be dignified....


FLIGHT OF THE SERBS

Niš fell on November 4, 1915, King Peter's plate, according to the
subsequent avowals of one Brust, a non-commissioned officer, being
distributed among the 145th Prussian Regiment, the Colonel annexing
ten pieces and several privates receiving spoons and knives--and now
the Serbs had to leave their country. On the other side of the
Albanian mountains they might hope to find a land of exile. It is said
that several of the Ministers contemplated suicide--the Minister of
War had so far lost his head that, after reaching Salonica by way of
Monastir, he refused to join his colleagues at Scutari--but the
venerable Pašić did not lose his jovial humour. He may have
laughed in order to encourage those who were despairing. On the other
hand, he may have known that Serbia would rise, and rise to greater
heights. He made no secret of the satisfaction which he felt when the
Bulgars attacked, for this, he said, would settle once for all the
Macedonian question. Whether the attitude of the Southern Slavs in
Austria-Hungary appealed to him in equal measure is a little doubtful.
It was hard for him, at his time of life, to envisage anything more
than a Greater Serbia.


THE FAITHFUL CROATS

But the Croats, as is shown by other documents from the Zagreb
archives, were faithful to their race. The extracts, by the way, reply
to those foolish Italians who persisted for years in shouting that the
Croats had been the fiercest foes of the Entente. That they were the
foes of Italy is not surprising, for the provisions of the wretched
Treaty of London, concluded behind the back of the British Parliament
and without even the Cabinet being consulted, were by this time public
property, and it was seen that the Italians had succeeded in
persuading the Entente to promise them the reversion of a great slice
of Yugoslav territory, very large portions of which were as completely
Yugoslav as the island of Scedro (Torcola), whose population consists
of one Slav woman called Yakaš, over eighty years of age. Save for
their sentiments towards the Italians, it is clear that a large number
of Croats were very warmly and very actively on the side of the
Entente. I am sure that the unfortunate Italians of the Trentino who,
like them, were enrolled in the Imperial and Royal army were as eager
to desert, and no doubt if they had been more numerous we should have
had an Italian contingent fighting with the Russians, in association
with the Czecho-Slovak and the Yugoslav brigades.


(G)

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL MILITARY COMMAND IN             _Sealed._
ZAGREB.                                         CHIEF OF STAFF.
INT. DEP.        ARMY G.H.Q.               1  To be dispatched in
COMMANDER ON THE S.E. FRONT.                  two envelopes, K.N.
         F.P.O. 11.                        2  to be written on the
5 op. by H.Q.F.    P.O. 305.               3  one inside and N.
5 A.E.C.          F.P.O. 81.               4  alone without K. on
      Evid. O. Vienna.                     5  the outer; seal!

ZAGREB, _July_ 10, 1915.

In spite of the ten months' war with Serbia, in spite of the notable
executions of native citizens for assisting the enemy at the time of
his incursion into Syrmia and Bosnia, there has latterly been an
alarming increase in the number of cases of grossest insult to the
person of H.M. the Emperor and King; outbreaks of deeply felt, only
forcibly controlled hatred against everything friendly to the dynasty
and the Monarchy, curses upon the exalted wearer of the Crown,
glorification of King Peter and the Serb realm, expressed by men and
women alike, are of daily occurrence....


(H)

In this document we return to the subject of desertions:

ROYAL HUNGARIAN 42ND INFANTRY OF THE LINE.
Op. No. 1312/6.

TO THE IMPERIAL AND ROYAL CORPS
COMMAND IN SADAGORA.

CZERNAWKA, _August_ 12, 1915.

In the period from the 8/8 to the 9/8 two men of the 10th company have
deserted (of whom one is probably wandering somewhere behind the
front, as he is mentally deficient, having even gone away without a
cap and being a Roman Catholic); likewise four men of the 12th company
and all the men recently enrolled from the village of Dolnji Lapac, of
the Greek Orthodox religion, have apparently deserted to the foe.

The impressions which I had of these men--impressions based on a
personal intercourse of several hours while they were being marched to
the recruiting depot--was unfavourable. And this I immediately made
known in writing to the regimental command, with a brief note on this
point on the 6/8 to the 11th Corps command. Unhappily my impressions
were correct; there are scoundrels in these ranks. I have for the
present instituted a most thorough and severe examination, wherein I
am already myself participating; for I am inflexibly determined, at
the very smallest sign of a recurrence, to apply to these traitors the
military judicial procedure and, if necessary, to have the men
decimated, as I was unfortunately compelled to do with the
Bosnian-Herzegovinian line regiment No. 4 last winter, which method
had the most excellent results. That regiment has thenceforward been
blameless.... I am so very well informed as to conditions in the south
that I cannot be deceived, and I know that, in spite of all--including
some misguided--measures, there are still a number of traitors, some
of them occupying a high social position, moving about freely in
Croatia-Slavonia instead of being strangled.

So that steps may be taken against the families of guilty persons, I
enclose a list of the men who have deserted from the middle of June,
this year. I beg that I may be supported to the uttermost, without the
slightest wavering, and in a short time--so my experience tells me--we
shall be in a most satisfactory position.

LIPOSCAK, Lieut.-Field-Marshal.[94]

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL CORPS COMMAND,
SADAGORA, 12/8, 1915. 9 p.m.

No. 2446, with three enclosures.


(I)

We then get an elaborate and indignant dissertation, dated November
1915 and signed by Lieut.-Colonel Olleschick. It is a study of the way
in which the secret police was hampered and its patriotic activities
watered down; the Colonel also exposes the manner in which
antipatriotic, or shall we say anti-Habsburg, citizens of
Croatia-Slavonia are protected:

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL MILITARY COMMAND IN ZAGREB.
_Chief of the General Staff._

K. No. 1681.

The Colonel expresses his unbounded approval of Maravić, the chief
of this branch of the police, and of von Klobučarić, a police
captain. The former, who is dead, was for many years at the head of
the police at Zemlin, opposite Belgrade, and has left behind a
reputation for fairness. The whereabouts of von Klobučarić are
unknown, and it would be prudent if this ex-Austrian officer,
ex-dentist's assistant and ex-policeman were to ensure their remaining
so. The Ban is accused of having frustrated various designs of this
couple. He is further accused of having placed at the head of the
Koprivnica internment camp--where 6000 "politically untrustworthy"
Serbs were assembled--the mayor, Kamenar, who himself had been
dismissed for his political untrustworthiness; and when the military
protested, they received no answer, while the mayor--so the wrathful
writer hears--has been removed from his post at the internment camp
and restored to his former office and dignity. The colonel asks how it
is that in Croatia the crimes of "Majestätsbeleidigung" and high
treason are seldom punished with more than three or four months'
incarceration, while in other parts of the Empire they are visited
with death or at least a sentence of several years. (The answer is
that in Croatia the Government was obliged, on account of the
language, to employ Croatian judges.) He mentions that Professor
Arshinov, alleged to have come to Zagreb in order to carry on an
anti-Habsburg and pro-Serbian propaganda, is indeed under arrest, but
is being far too well treated at the hospital, where he receives his
Serbian associates and even has convivial evenings with them. In fact
the whole country, so the writer asserts, is saturated with Serbian
sympathies and agitators. He says that in some villages every
functionary, from the highest to the lowest, is a Serb; the
_gendarmerie_, the tax-gatherers and the foresters are frequently
Serbs and he regards it as noteworthy that the hotels, inns and cafés
are almost exclusively in Serbian hands; "and it is only too well
known,"--so he rather strangely says--"that these are the places where
suspicious characters are wont to hatch their secret plans under the
influence of alcohol." He complains at length of the anti-Austrian
activities of the Serbo-Croatian Coalition, and this proves that the
party was not, as its critics have said, too subservient to the
Habsburgs.


HOW THE SERBS CAME TO THEIR PATRIARCH'S TOWN

At the end of November the Serbian army, with the Government and
thousands of refugees, arrived at the ancient towns of Prizren and
Peć. It was at the rambling old patriarchal town of Peć that the
Serbian soldiers had to do a thing which even their marvellous
optimism could not endure--most of the field guns had now to be
destroyed, after a few years of crowded and victorious life. An
American correspondent, Mr. Fortier Jones, tells us[95] how a gunner
asked to be photographed beside his beloved weapon, and how, when he
wanted to leave his address, he suddenly realized that with the loss
of this gun he would be a mere homeless wanderer. It was not
surprising that these steel-built stoics, than whom all French and
British witnesses agree there are no better fighters in the world,
should have broken down at this ordeal. As for the chauffeurs, they
were busy polishing their cars and cleaning their engines--presumably
through force of habit--prior to the breaking up of all these
touring-cars and lorries. Some were saturated with petrol and set on
fire, others were exploded with hand grenades, but the most
imaginative method was to drive the car up to that place, two or three
miles from Peć, where the road to Andrievica turned into a
horse-trail on the side of the precipice. Here the chauffeur would
jump out, after having let in the clutch and pushed down the
accelerator--and the car would leap into space, three or four hundred
feet over a mountain torrent. From this point the _via dolorosa_
stretched away precariously, at first a winding path of ice and then a
track across the snowdrifts of the barren uplands. The Serbian
Government had offered to construct this very necessary road to
Andrievica; the engineer, one Smodlaka, undertook to build it in three
months, but Nikita's Minister replied that the Austrian prisoners,
whom it was proposed to use, were mostly in the grip of spotted fever.
This was not the case, and one of the results of there being no road
was that nearly all the supplies from Russia for the Montenegrins were
abandoned at Peć. Cold, starvation and exposure took a fearful toll
among the straggling wanderers--between 1000 and 1500 were cut off and
murdered by savage Albanians (whose considerate treatment of the Serbs
is highly praised by their champion, Miss Edith Durham. Reviewing in
the _Daily Herald_ a book of Serbian tales that have precious little
to do with Albania, she goes out of her way to laud, in those days of
the terrible retreat, the kindliness of her protégés.) As we have
mentioned, of the 36,000 boys who accompanied the army in order to
escape the Austrians, only some 16,000 reached the Adriatic, where it
was said that there was nothing human left of them except their eyes.
They had lived on roots and bark of trees, they drank the water into
which decomposed corpses had been thrown. Of the 50,000 Austrian
prisoners--many of them Yugoslavs--about 44,000 died in the course of
their eight weeks' retreat; none of them were heard to complain or
seen committing any brutal act. Very many Englishwomen were included
in this long procession; old King Peter walked a good deal of the way,
the Archbishop of Belgrade brought the relics of Stephen the
First-Crowned and was followed by priests with lighted tapers, and
Marshal Putnik, whom exposure would have killed, was carried all the
way inside a primitive sedan-chair.... "Whence do you come and what
are you?" asked a Serbian woman[96] of the wounded and dying. "We
are," they replied in prose that reminds one of Mestrović, "we are
the smouldering torches with which our country is kept warm. In the
heart of one's native land there is neither truth nor justice--we love
our native land; this love is a barrier against human love; the heart
of one's native land is great and selfish and it throbs--in this heart
is the faith of all our hearts, we love our native land. We watch
over it and we defend it and we love, though the lettering upon our
tomb be enveloped in ivy. Formidable is its victory, and we will march
along, not asking whether anybody will return. We love our native land
and even when the blood is thickening inside our throats and we are
carrying our entrails in our hands." Though they were Serbs they had
forgotten how to sing; it was some time later that the words, now
famous, of "Tamo daleko" burst from the inspired lips of a simple
soldier and were taken up by his companions: "There, far away, far
away by the Morava, there is my village, there is my love...."

"They came exhausted into Scutari, one by one or in small groups,"
says Monsieur Boppe, the French Minister,[97] "some of them on
horseback, some on foot; here and there one saw a trace of military
order, but most of them had no weapons. They looked as if they could
not march another mile, these moving skeletons, so painfully they
crawled along, so haggard, so emaciated, with a colour so cadaverous
and eyes so dull. This mournful band of brothers struggled into
Scutari for days, beneath the rain and through the mud. No bitterness
came from the lips of those who had undergone every privation; as if
impelled by destiny, they passed along in silence; from time to time,
indeed, one heard them say 'hleba' (bread)--that was the only word
they had the strength to pronounce. For several days the majority of
them had had nothing to eat, and in the cantonments where they were
lodged outside the town their Government could only provide a meagre
ration." A hundredweight of maize cost 300 francs in gold.... But what
of the women who had remained in Belgrade? Miss Annie Christić, whose
unflagging work for her people is so well known in this country, has
told us how the Austro-Hungarians started paying out relief money to
the families of State officials. They advertised their generosity on a
large scale, but the amounts were very small, and many women were too
proud to accept this dole from the enemy. They preferred to do any
kind of work offered by the municipality of Belgrade. Thus one saw
women in furs or smart clothes--the remnants of former days--trundling
wheelbarrows of stone for road repairs, or carrying heavy loads.
Delicately nurtured girls could be seen working at the slaughterhouse
among the entrails and offal for twelve hours on end. The wife of a
professor scrubbed office floors for many months before her husband at
the front could send her any money. Street-sweeping was a common
occupation for women of all classes.

"We rescued the gallant Serbian army," said the Italians, in the
course of a long and rhetorical placard which in 1919 they pasted up
throughout Rieka and the Adriatic lands they occupied, and which was
not more convincing than the caravan of Dalmatian mayors whom, after
the War, they very proudly exhibited in Paris, a suave official from
the Embassy acting as the showman. (The Italian authorities had taken
in hand the election of these mayors--save Signor Ziliotto of Zadar,
who was elected by his fellow-townsmen.) ... When the wretched Serbs
who found themselves staggering through central Albania--among them
large numbers of boys so young that they would not have been called up
until 1919--when they hoped to reach the Adriatic at Valona, they were
told that this route was barred to them. Having eluded the Austrians,
the Germans and the Bulgars, they were left by the Italians to die of
starvation and fatigue. It may well have seemed to them, as to Bedros
Tourian, the Armenian poet, that "All the world is but God's mockery."
When King Peter, worn out by the journey and his ailments, reached
Valona by way of Durazzo, he was ordered by the commandant of that
place to depart with his suite--which consisted of four
persons--within twenty-four hours.... In the middle of December a
French relief mission arrived on the Albanian coast, General de
Mondésir reached Scutari and a large British mission under General
Taylor landed at Durazzo. These did what was possible to save the
remnants of the Serbian army. But, after a short time, a fresh series
of obstacles arose. The King of Montenegro, very loyal to the
Austrians, facilitated their advance across his country. Thus it was
impracticable for the Serbs to concentrate and to embark from those
few wooden huts which are called, in Italian, San Giovanni di Medua.
Between the bare cliffs and the sea the miserable men and boys and
women were compelled to plod towards the south. One hundred and fifty
thousand survivors were eventually carried by the Allies to Corfu.


THE SHADOW OVER MONTENEGRO

These had been busy days for Nikita and his sons. A royal order was
issued to the Montenegrin military and police authorities, commanding
them to prevent the population from giving or selling any provisions
to the Serbian army. "Ne bogami, svetoga mi Vassilija ne!" ["Goodness
gracious, no! And by St. Basil, no!"] was the phrase which greeted the
Serbs;[98] and when they remonstrated with the Montenegrins for
demanding eleven Serbian dinars in silver for ten Montenegrin
perpers--the exchange was at par, but the people were acting under
orders--"If I had ten sons I would give them to King Peter," was the
usual reply, "but money is money." Yet the Austrians were not as
grateful as they might have been. Nikita was intending, after the
annihilation of the Serbs, to conclude a separate peace with Austria
and to rule, as an Austrian satrap, over an enlarged territory. But
they ignored his aspirations; they did not take into account that he
had been so kind to them at Lovčen and elsewhere. They swarmed over
his country--this time he was not play-acting when he showed his
indignation--and the deceived deceiver was forced to fly. On January
10, Lovčen had fallen. A characteristic telegram:

    Kuča mi gori,
    Kuči mi trebaju--

["My house is burning, I want the Kuči"] was sent by Nikita to his
best fighting men, the Kuči, whom he had left in reserve at
Danilovgrad. When General Gajnić received this he marched all night
with his brigade and reached Cetinje in the morning. Nikita met them
and announced that, after all, he did not require them. He would
conquer without them. And Lovčen fell.

That Adriatic Gibraltar, which rises gaunt and sheer to some 6000
feet, was entrusted by Nikita to his youngest son, Prince Peter, a
young man of marvellous vanity. He used to deny, after the surrender
of Lovčen, that he had consorted at Budva with Lieut.-Colonel
Hupka, the former military attaché at Cetinje, whom the Austrians
brought specially from the Italian front for this purpose. The
well-known patriot, Dr. Machiedo of Zadar, who happened to be confined
during the summer of 1915 by the Austrians in the fortress of
Goražda, which lies above Kotor, read in the telephone book certain
messages from Prince Peter, asking for an interview with Hupka--these
messages were carried by a patrol to the lines and thence telephoned
to Goražda. When the Prince at last acknowledged that he had been
meeting Hupka--which he naturally had done at his father's command--he
stated that it was with the object of preventing the bombardment of
open towns by Austrian aeroplanes. Between him and Hupka the
arrangements were made; many of the Austrians exchanged their military
boots for the Serbian national sandals, so that they could more easily
scale the rocks; and Peter sent verbal orders to his two outlying
brigadiers that they must not resist. General Pejanović demanded,
however, that this should be put in writing, and the document is
extant. Thirteen Austrians lie buried in a little graveyard on the
slopes of Lovčen, mostly men who missed their footing; and this was
the price that Austria paid for the tremendous mountain that she had
coveted for years; she had been willing, more than once, to let the
Montenegrins, in exchange for it, have Scutari. The great picture of
"The Storming of Lovčen," which Gabriel Jurkić, the Sarajevo
artist, was commissioned by the Austrians to paint, was never painted;
and when Nikita motored out from Cetinje to meet the men who were
retiring from Lovčen he had the hardihood to rebuke them as
traitors. "It is not we who are traitors," shouted a colonel, "it is
you and your sons!" "Oh! that I must hear such words!" groaned the
King, "I want to die!" But he did not die; on the contrary, he went to
Paris. His eldest son had announced, early in the campaign, that he
was unwell, and he had gone to France by way of Athens. There he was
very accurately told by Constantine in which month Mackensen and the
Bulgars would descend upon Serbia. When the Prince arrived at Nice he
mentioned this to his friend, Jovo Popović, the former Montenegrin
Minister at Constantinople, and to Radović. They advised him to
inform the Entente, in order to rehabilitate himself. But when he
telegraphed to his father the reply was "Be quiet." Prince Danilo has
never denied the allegations that while he was at Nice, Signor
Carminatti, the Montenegrin Consul-General in Milan, conducted
negotiations on his behalf at Lugano with a certain Herr Bernsdorf of
the Deutsche Bank, with a view to a separate peace by Montenegro. The
amount of the financial consideration is not known. And the
business-like Prince, realizing that it would be impossible for him to
return to his native land, secured himself against the future by
selling, through a couple of confidential agents, his real estate to
the Austrians. He likewise disposed of a good deal of forest which is
alleged to have belonged not to him but to the State, and when his
father heard of the resulting sum of a hundred million francs he was
exceedingly annoyed that this robbery and trafficking with the enemy
during the War had only replenished Danilo's and not his own
exchequer. When his political opponents heard of these transactions he
denied, over and over again, that they had taken place; but we have
his autograph letter on the subject to Danilo. Before the King left
Montenegro he found another opportunity for a grandiose attitude. He
appeared at Podgorica where he made an eloquent speech, exhorting his
people to march on the morrow against the hated Austrian and assuring
them that their old King would fire the first shot, whereas he
decamped in the night for Scutari, which is in the opposite direction.
He and the Queen, Prince Peter and Miuškević, the Premier, fled
the country; while Prince Mirko, the remainder of the Cabinet, the
National Assembly and--above all--the army had instructions to remain
behind. How much easier it would have been for his army than for the
Serbs to reach Corfu. But this terrible old man delivered 50,000 of
the best Yugoslav soldiers to the enemy. On January 21 he sailed away.
I do not know if anybody sang the National Anthem--"Onamo! Onamo!"
["Yonder! Yonder!"]--which in his youth Nikita had himself composed.
And a few years later when the gallant Montenegrins could again lift
up their voices and sing "Onamo!" how many of them thought of him who
was skulking and of course intriguing yonder in France.

We have alluded to the treatment which in their distress the Serbs
received from their Italian Allies; but in Albania the Italian army
did render a certain amount of assistance--every day at eleven o'clock
the Austrian aeroplanes would reach Durazzo, and the Italian soldiers,
sentries and all, would rush helter-skelter from the plentiful food to
which they were just sitting down. The Serbs, many of them, after
their privations, looking like grey ghosts, were always in the
neighbourhood of the Italian barracks and very glad they were to see
those aeroplanes which permitted them to enter in and enjoy a
bounteous meal. When the senior Italian officer complained to his
Serbian colleague, "Surely," said the latter, "you have a sentry at
the door. He can prevent anyone from going in." At some distance
inland a Serbian major, a friend of mine, was resting on the side of
the road; he had eaten nothing for four days. A spick-and-span Italian
lieutenant of _gendarmerie_ paused in front of him and was clearly
interested. The major wondered whether he would have some food about
him. But the lieutenant did not even offer him a cigarette. "Pardon
me," he said with a friendly smile, "but will you allow me to take a
photograph?" Large numbers of mules were brought over by the Italians
and apparently it gave them pleasure to cut their throats. The
officers purchased many Serbian horses--their owners were too
destitute to bargain. But in fairness it must be said that some
Italian ships worked with the French and British vessels in conveying
the Serbs, soldiers and civilians, from the coast of Albania.

As for the Montenegrin King, he had attempted, before his departure,
to put the whole blame on the shoulders of Colonel Pešić. He
sent--in order to make more certain the success of the Austrian
army--a telegraphic command[99] to the Voivoda Djuro Petrović, the
chief of the Herzegovinian detachment, in which he required him to
destroy his cannons and machine guns and then (although the enemy was
exerting no pressure upon him) to withdraw towards Nikšić. This
order was issued in the name of Colonel Pešić, the signature
being forged. In fact Nikita thought his Serbian Chief of Staff was
quite a useful personage. But there exists a letter in which the
Colonel wrote that, in order to avoid capitulation, a supreme effort
would be necessary at certain positions which he indicated and anyhow
the army should be withdrawn to Scutari and the defence of the town
organized. Scutari, by the way, was the scene of another of Nikita's
exploits: he caused the Bank of Montenegro to send money to the
Austrian Consul there, the cash being delivered by Martinović, the
Montenegrin Consul. It was used to incite the Albanians to take
military action against the Serbs between Prizren and Djakovica. When
this affair was exposed all the Montenegrins knew by what traitors
they were governed. The fall of Montenegro had been brought about more
swiftly by the Austrian submarines which in the Gulf of San Giovanni
di Medua torpedoed practically every ship that carried food or
munitions, while other boats were not molested. An investigation
showed that the shipping news had been telegraphed to Prince Peter,
and he in his turn handed it on to the Austrians. The Prince's
egregious parent wanted to be in a position to say that, owing to the
lack of food and munitions, he had been compelled to surrender. One of
his final acts was to summon the Skupština, as he did not wish to
be saddled with the responsibility of making peace. At a secret
sitting on December 11, 1915,--when the retreating Serbs were in San
Giovanni, Scutari and Podgorica,--the Government declared that they
had no resources, that the Entente could not assist them and that they
would wage war for so long as they had the means--in other words, that
the war would cease. It was continued, however, by those Montenegrin
troops between Kolašin and Bielo Polje, who--even after the fall
of Lovćen on January 10, and the flowing of the Austrian army
towards Scutari--were ordered to make a counter-offensive, during
which they had over 1500 dead and wounded. The reason for this was
that Nikita wished to prevent his army from escaping to Scutari; he
was afraid lest, if they escaped with the Serbs, they would dethrone
him forthwith. Afterwards he gave an explanation that he had ordered
the Chief of Staff, Yanko Vukotić, to rescue the army, which order
he alleged he had wirelessed from Brindisi. Vukotić, together with
Prince Mirko and the Ministers who stayed behind, declared in the
_Pester Lloyd_ that Nikita was lying. They added that he could have
sent no wireless from Brindisi, because there was at that time no
receiving station in Montenegro, the French one at Podgorica having
been destroyed at the order of the British Minister, Count de Salis,
the doyen of the diplomatic corps. The King, by the way, had
endeavoured for some time to rid himself of the diplomats, who were
inconvenient witnesses of what was in progress. On December 31 a
telegram was sent by the Ministers of France, Great Britain, Italy and
Russia, in which they said that "Apparently our presence is
displeasing to the King and he is trying to disengage himself from us.
He has begged us on several occasions to depart and last night he
insisted, with the asseveration that in forty-eight hours it would be
too late. We suspect that His Majesty is playing a very ambiguous
game...." And on January 9 the French Minister telegraphed, among
other things, that "My Russian and English colleagues are of opinion
that the King is merely performing a comedy with us and that this
comedy will end in a tragedy for the belligerents." Nikita, on his
arrival in France, proposed to settle down at Lyons, but the French
authorities did not care for him to be so close to Switzerland, which
was one of his intriguing centres. So they placed at his disposal a
château near Bordeaux and it was not until he had made repeated
requests that they permitted him to come to Neuilly, a suburb of
Paris. He replaced Miuškević as Premier by Radović, the
former victim of the Bomb Trial, hoping by this move towards the Left
to silence his critics. But in August 1916 Radović presented a
memorandum in favour of the formal union between Montenegro and
Serbia, under King Peter's son and King Nicholas' grandson, Prince
Alexander. The Montenegrin monarch was enraged at this and, after
Radović had resigned, one after another all the Montenegrins of any
standing withdrew from Nikita, who was openly working against the
Serbs. He and the Princess Xenia conducted all the Government
business, though he distributed among his tiny clique of adherents
various empty titles. An aged friend of his, Eugene Popović, a
native of Triest and a naturalized Italian, was made Premier, to give
pleasure to Italy; a more active person was the War Minister,
Hajduković, a former shipping contractor in Constantinople, where a
long time ago he had been one of those young Montenegrins who, to the
number of twenty, the Sultan used to educate--a process which, in the
case of idle boys, was not very irksome. During the Great War
Hajduković was invited by the Allies to quit Salonica, as they had
certain suspicions against him. He had also, on behalf of his King,
urged the Montenegrin volunteers who had managed to get to Salonica
not to allow themselves to be commanded by Serbian or French officers,
but to demand Montenegrin officers, of whom there was no adequate
supply. These men had ultimately to be sent to Corsica and kept there
till the end of the War. What Hajduković performed at Salonica,
another royal agent, one Vuković, a bootmaker, attempted at
Marseilles, where he continually went on board the vessels that were
bringing Montenegrins and, to a smaller extent, other Yugoslavs from
the United States and South America to the Salonica front. These
travelled men were less easily influenced than those who obeyed
Hajduković; but 300-400 did refuse to proceed. They were installed
in a factory at Orange, where the Montenegrin Government fed them and
paid them. Now and then they were encouraged by being told that if
they had gone to the Front the Serbian officers would have flogged
them.... And so the little Court at Neuilly occupied the years with
many a congenial intrigue. Feelers were stretched out to this country,
where an English edition of Radović's _Montenegrin Bulletin_, the
pro-Yugoslav organ, was being published by my friend Vassilje Burić
to the furious indignation of the busybodies who supported the King
and of the Italian Embassy. From these two sources and from Neuilly
the Foreign Office was bombarded with protests, begging it in the name
of justice, etc., to put a stop to this dire scandal. One day a
charming Foreign Office clerk, an acquaintance of mine, had Burić
to lunch at the Royal Automobile Club; in the course of the meal he
suggested that, as Burić was not looking well, they two should have
a little holiday in France. Burić said he would be very glad to go
with him, but he thought it would be nice to stay in England. The
charming official held out for the Continent, and with such obstinacy
that Burić at last put his hand upon his arm and invited him to
promise that they would both of them come back to England. Thereupon
the host acknowledged that a perfect flood of letters had been pouring
on the Foreign Office with respect to the _Montenegrin Bulletin_, and
they were weary of receiving them.... Sometimes the Neuilly Court was
plunged in gloom, as when old Tomo Oraovac's little book appeared with
seventy-five awkward questions to Nikita. For three days the King shut
himself up in his room, trying to decide as to whether he should issue
an answer. He decided to do nothing. Now and then a French review or
newspaper referred to him. "The official courtesies extended by the
French Government to Nicholas I. and his family should not deceive the
public," said the eminent publicist Monsieur Gauvain in the _Revue de
Paris_ (March 1917). M. Gauvain showed that the Petrović dynasty
constituted the sole obstacle to a union of Montenegro with Serbia and
the rest of the Yugoslav lands. As Nikita drove past the office of the
_Revue de Paris_ he may have been thinking, rather wistfully, of that
brave afternoon at Nikšić.[100] ... Sometimes the old man was
worried by his sons. Peter, for example, who had been the spoilt child
and who had been given posts for which he was unfitted, now discovered
in himself, during the autumn of 1918, a great desire to obtain a
certain Madame Violette Brunet, the legal wife of Monsieur Brunet, who
was in Nikita's service. The ardent lover, regardless of the ancient
Montenegrin custom which inflicted stoning on the guilty married
woman, while the husband sometimes cut her nose off, wrote to his
parents, asking them to arrange the matter, and when the ex-King
raised objections, Peter blackmailed him by threatening to divulge to
the world at large all the unsavoury details connected with Lovćen.
"My dear son," wrote Nikita in November 1918,[101] "You write again
asking me to send an emissary to represent myself and your mother in
suing for the hand of the woman of your choice, failing this, you say
you will make a scandal whereby the honour of both of us and of the
whole family will suffer; to obviate this unpleasant possibility we
may see our way to agree to your wish, but under the following
conditions...."


THE BROKEN SERBS AT CORFU

Meanwhile the Serbs had, ever since the early days of 1916 when they
began arriving in Corfu, been hard at work upon their army. Thousands
landed at Corfu in such a state that only with continual care, with
warmth and nourishing food could they be rescued. But on the little
island of Vido where they were deposited the tents were few, the beds
were fewer, wood was lacking, so that fires could not be made, and
thousands died where they sank down, amid the olive groves and orange
trees. The doctors nursed as many as they could in that one empty
building; but for very long about a hundred corpses were each day
piled in a little boat and taken out to sea. Usually they had died of
pure exhaustion. Out of the 16,000 boys who had scrambled along with
the army as far as Durazzo, about 2000 died on the sea and another
7000 on the Isle of Vido.

At Corfu the Serbs, with the other Yugoslavs, had also to set about
securing the foundations of their State that was to be. The Russians,
at the time of the negotiations which ended in the Treaty of London,
had been looking forward to an Orthodox State, a Greater Serbia,
bounded by the river Narenta. This, if it had been carried out, would
have jettisoned, and probably for ever, the Croats and Slovenes. That
was the incredibly stupid old Russian policy of identifying Slav
patriotism with the Orthodox Church, a policy held up to ridicule by
Strossmayer. It was the Yugoslav Committee, working chiefly in London,
assisted by English friends, working there and at Corfu, which caused
the Serbs, the Croats and Slovenes to publish on July 20, 1917, the
historic Corfu Declaration, which laid it down that the nation of the
three names was resolved to free itself from every foreign yoke and to
become a constitutional, democratic and Parliamentary Monarchy under
the Karageorgević dynasty. It is said that those two excellent
friends of the Southern Slavs, the brilliant Mr. Wickham Steed and Dr.
Seton-Watson, than whom no publicist is more conscientious, had to
face a determined opposition on the part of M. Pašić before it
was agreed that the Roman Catholic religion should in the prospective
State have equal rights with the Orthodox. One would be disposed to
criticize the Serbian Premier on account of a narrow policy dictated
by his excessive wish for self-preservation--he saw very well that
these clauses of equality might undermine the long reign of the
Radicals--but it must be acknowledged that if the Southern Slavs had
limited themselves to a Greater Serbia, in which the Radical party had
been supreme, they would not have wasted so much of their energy,
after the War, in domestic political conflict. They would also, very
probably, have gained more favourable terms from the Entente; and the
union with the Croats and Slovenes might have been effected later. But
against this is the opinion of those who argue that the separation
would have become permanent. However, if the union of the Southern
Slavs could not be postponed, we may believe that it would have been
wise to call the new country, for a couple of years, Greater Serbia.
No doubt the logical Italians would have pointed out to the rest of
the Entente that their bugbears, the Croats and the Slovenes, were
included in this State; but the Allies as a whole would have been more
inclined to be indulgent towards a country whose name they honoured
than towards the same country whose various new-fangled
designations--Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; or
Yugoslavia; or S.H.S.--they found so puzzling. The Transylvanians who,
one supposes, will play the chief rôle in Greater Roumania have as
yet, much to the profit of all the Roumanians, permitted the retention
of that name. This course was not adopted by the Southern Slavs, and
Pašić giving way to Messrs. Steed and Seton-Watson, appointed M.
Yovanović to London with the object of working on the lines of the
Declaration of Corfu.


THE SOUTHERN SLAVS IN THE UNITED STATES

The building of the new State and its army was also being undertaken
with great fervour in America, New Zealand and Australia. North
America contained about 100,000 Orthodox Serbs, 200,000 Catholic
Slovenes and 400,000 Catholic Croats; South America had some 50,000
Yugoslavs, chiefly Catholic Dalmatians; while the 8000-10,000 in
Australasia were mostly of that origin. Two kinds of Southern Slav
newspapers were being printed in North America, namely those which the
Austrian Ambassador supported, and those which were national. The
chief argument of the former species was the Treaty of London, which,
as the editors pointed out, gave up a large part of Dalmatia to the
Italians. Two of these editors, by the way, were imprisoned for other
reasons by the authorities. They had constantly threatened the
terrible punishment that Austria would inflict on those who had worked
against the Fatherland--many of the Southern Slavs, like the
Roumanians, Czechs, Ruthenians and Magyars, were employed in munition
factories, and the Austrian Embassy, in concert with the German, hoped
to see them on the land. After a time the Yugoslavs took an office in
Washington and attacked this propaganda, their example being followed
by the Czechs and the Poles. When the United States entered the War
these Austrophil papers no longer wrote in favour of Austria, but
confined themselves to animadversions against the Serbian leaders,
suggesting likewise that Croatia and Slovenia should be
independent.... The patriotic Yugoslav papers--three dailies in New
York, three in Chicago, and over twenty weekly organs--were not
subsidized by the Yugoslav Committee in London or by the Government in
Corfu; and some of the editors did not display a very prosperous
appearance. But the poor Yugoslav workers contributed 20 million
dollars to the first three Liberty loans, and when the National
Council at Pittsburg in November 1916 united the different charitable,
gymnastic and political associations, a call was made for volunteers.
Between 25,000-30,000 men joined the United States army, a good many
joined the Canadian contingents, and about 10,000 sailed for Salonica.
The Yugoslavs in South America were in different circumstances: the
Dalmatian temperament being nearer to the Spanish they found it easier
to make their way; besides which, those who went to South America were
on the average more advanced than those who preferred the North. In
Chili, the Argentine and Bolivia the Yugoslavs are often very
prosperous merchants and shipowners. They organized the Yugoslav
National Defence and found all the funds for the Yugoslav organization
in London. From New Zealand, where there is a Yugoslav paper called
_Zora_ (the _Dawn_), about 300 volunteers sailed to the Dardanelles,
and others, when the Salonica base was established, joined their
compatriots in that port.


CASH AND THE MONTENEGRIN ROYAL FAMILY

While the distant Yugoslavs were, in one way or another, helping the
cause, that family of criminals which reigned in Montenegro did not
shrink from malversation of the funds of the Red Cross. A young Croat,
Mr. Miličević, who before the War became a naturalized
Montenegrin and in Neuilly served as Minister of Justice, has related
how the Government continually borrowed (and did not repay) large sums
of Red Cross money, and that if new clothes came from England for the
refugees they would in Paris be replaced quite often for much older
ones. How did the people fare? After the country had been occupied by
the Austrians, most of the Allies consented that it should be
revictualled on the same lines as Belgium. Even Austria offered no
objections. One State only and one man were hostile to the scheme, and
that man actually the King of Montenegro. "A poor and starving
people," he argued, "is the most subservient. My interests will suffer
if commodities are given to the Montenegrins. Let them wait. And when
the moment comes for my return, I will go back with large supplies and
be most popular." Even when his Ministers had realized that there must
be no more delay in asking for the King of Spain's good offices--since
the Italians (presumably in concert with Nikita) fought against the
plan--and when the letter to the King of Spain was drafted it produced
another one from Nikita to his Ministers--written by Nikita, but
signed by his aide-de-camp. "The King," he said, "considers that the
letter to the King of Spain should stand over, so long as one cannot
be sure that Italy will permit the transit of foodstuffs destined for
the people." He desired no mediation between himself and the Italians.
Perhaps the most audacious act of spoliation was the sale of the State
stores at Gallipoli, just when the Allied offensive on the Salonica
front was leading to the collapse of the enemy. Instead of forwarding
the 25,000 greatcoats, the 20,000 kilos of leather, and great
quantities of material, medical and other stores, to Montenegro and
rendering first aid to the liberated population, the managers of the
Royal Treasury deemed it wiser to transfer the value of all these
stores into their own pockets, disposing of more than 2½ million
francs worth of goods to trusted figureheads for a few hundred
thousand Italian lire. Fortunately the French naval authorities put a
stop to this brigandage, and the honest guardians of the people only
succeeded in diverting a few hundreds of thousands. You may suppose
that there is no excuse for conduct of this kind; but the Royal Family
could say, "Behold, the people do not want our gifts." The
Montenegrins, for example, who were interned at Karlstein in Austria,
where they were not overfed, sent a telegram on November 27, 1916, to
ask at whose initiative the Red Cross parcels had been sent to them.
This was (in German) the prepaid reply: "Montenegrin Committee,
President, Professor Pugnet, supported by the Red Cross. (Signed) THE
BAKERY." As Pugnet was Danilo's professor, all the interned, except
six or seven, declined the parcels.[102] Among the half-dozen were
some relatives of Nikita, and some who explained that "We take the
traitor's bread, for otherwise we should die; and after all it is the
Entente which sends it. How unfortunate for us that they regard Nikita
as our King." After the Armistice Nikita and his adherents complained
bitterly that the Podgorica Assembly which deposed him was convened
before these internees had come back from Austria!

Although the funds of the Montenegrin Red Cross were, as we have seen,
not devoted to the needs of many of the Montenegrins, yet the Royal
Family were very energetic in collecting cash. They caused a letter to
be written to the French Red Cross, which had collected two millions
for the Serbs, and in the letter they asked for a part of the two
millions. A diplomatic answer was received. "You are only working," it
said, "for Montenegro, whereas we are for all the Yugoslavs." This
lack of success in financial matters was a new experience for the
Royal House. When Russia sent the Montenegrin officers their pay
during the War, an arrangement was made for it to come _via_ Serbia in
Serbian dinars. The King of Montenegro kept the dinars and paid his
officers in paper money. Later on he sold such enormous quantities of
dinars on the Paris Bourse that the Serbian Minister, Mr. Vesnić,
had to protest. One remembers the haste with which Nikita left his
country--both his people and his army he forgot, but not his gold. And
for two years in France he struggled to get into his own hands this
bullion which belonged to the State. Apparently he did at last receive
it when he was at Pau in 1918. He was granted, for the expenses of his
Court, a monthly allowance of 100,000 francs by Great Britain, the
same by France, and 300,000 by Italy, which latter was not registered
in the books. It would be interesting to know how much of this money
was used for objects that Great Britain and France would never have
countenanced. Virulent anti-Serbian newspapers were published in
Switzerland--the _Srpski List_, the _Naša Borba_ and the _Nova
Srbija_. The tone of these papers was so pleasing to the Austrians
that they bought up large numbers and distributed them throughout the
Southern Slav lands they were occupying. We are, therefore, not
astonished that the British subsidy came to an end in the course of
1917; to be resumed, however, in 1918 and finally stopped in June
1919, much to the indignation of Nikita and his partisans, who pointed
out that it had been decided in Paris in the beginning of the War that
the little nations participating in it should be helped pecuniarily.
France stopped her payment four months after England and said, in
answer to a Montenegrin Note, that if Great Britain resumed payment
they would follow her example. Pašić asked that the subsidies
should be discontinued, thus reducing "this little country to such a
state of despair," said Mr. Ronald M'Neill in the House of Commons in
November 1919, "and to strip it so naked before the world that it will
be compelled, having no other course to take, to accept union with
Serbia, as the only way out of hopeless misery and bankruptcy." It is
possible that Mr. M'Neill is referring to some subsidy other than that
given to Nikita, but I have my doubts. In the same speech he alluded
to American Relief work in Montenegro, saying that 70 per cent. of it
was consumed by Serbian troops and the rest sold to profiteers. He
confused the American Red Cross, which maintained four hospitals and
distributed vast quantities of clothing and food among the inhabitants
of Montenegro, and those American supplies which the Yugoslav
Government purchased, mainly for the troops. But Mr. M'Neill, M.P., is
very angry with the Serbs for spreading, as he says, reports
discreditable to the King of Montenegro--if he knew a little more I
think that he would say a good deal less--and Nikita must have
deprecated the remark that no facilities at all had been given by the
Great Powers to enable him and his Ministers to return to Montenegro.
If every Serbian soldier were to be withdrawn the country would, with
a tremendous majority, have been adverse to the ex-King and his
family. This was recognized by Danilo when his father suggested that
he should go out in the autumn of 1918. On December 5 he replied from
Cap Martin saying that the appendicitis from which he had suffered
since the War prevented him even from going into the garden. Mr.
M'Neill and a few similar enthusiasts are not weary of repeating that
the Serbs and the Montenegrins are quite distinct peoples. This, no
doubt, is Mr. M'Neill's opinion, and if he wishes to retain it he is
welcome to do so. But I should like to refer his audiences in the
House of Commons and elsewhere to the Patriarch Brkić of Peć,
who wrote in the eighteenth century concerning some of the Turkish
provinces. No one would pretend that Brkić was profoundly versed in
philology or in ethnography, and I believe he studied the Slav
languages not any more than does Mr. M'Neill. He was a Montenegrin
whose education had been that of an ordinary pupil in a monastery. He
spoke the Southern dialect, and in his eyes all those who had another
accent were not veritable Serbs. Even in our time there are many
Montenegrins whom it is quite difficult to convince that they are not
the only true Serbs.


THE BURDEN OF AUSTRIA'S SOUTHERN SLAV TROOPS

Meanwhile Austria's Yugoslav soldiers and sailors had been continuing
their patriotic work. On February 2, 1918, a telegram was sent to the
Army High Command at Baden (near Vienna). [This message is No. 974. It
concerns itself with the Austrian navy, in whose ranks Sarkotić
perceives agitation. The rest of the message consists chiefly of the
drastic remedies which the writer would apply.]

There follows a document, numbered 106,116, and dated May 5, 1918, in
which the disaffection of Slovene troops is described. Not only have
anti-dynastic ones been raised, but a N.C.O. has torn off his two
Austrian decorations and has stamped on them, while troops have worn
their national colours in their caps, though this is only authorized
when they are marching to a battlefield.

In a notice on the subject of Southern Slav and Italian propaganda in
Dalmatia, the military command at Mostar denounces the Southern Slavs,
officers and men:

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL ARMY: HIGHER COMMAND.
_Chief of the General Staff._

Op. No. 109,942.

BADEN, _August_ 5, 1918.

[After discussing various manifestations of disloyalty, the writer
says that he has observed how there is a kind of link between the Slav
officers, educated at the Academy, and their men. He finds that
Spalato is particularly given to these Southern Slav ideas, which he
believes is to be accounted for from the fact that Dr. Trumbić,
"the celebrated agitator," is mayor and deputy of that town.]

       *       *       *       *       *

So much for the complaints with regard to Austria-Hungary's Southern
Slav soldiers. Two military courts of justice sat at Zagreb through
the War, the Imperial and Royal Court, and that of the Royal Hungarian
No. 6 (Croatian-Slavonian) Honved Division. No statistics are to hand
with reference to the various courts in Syrmia, and that one which
earned such an evil reputation in the fortress of Peterwardein. The
judgments of the two Zagreb courts, where Croat officers were able to
make their influence felt, did not appear to the authorities of Vienna
and Buda-Pest to be sufficiently drastic. No death sentences were
pronounced, although these had been demanded; and on June 24, 1918, it
was decided that any further trials for high treason or for offences
against the military authorities should be held in Pressburg
(Bratislava) and not in Zagreb. The following statistics, relating to
the two Zagreb courts, were compiled from the official books which the
Austrians did not remove. The figures shown opposite, which are
certified by Captain Stožir, Provost-Marshal, show the increasing
determination to risk everything rather than to fight for Austria.


___________________________________________________________________________
|            |   IMPERIAL AND ROYAL COURT.  |     ROYAL HUNGARIAN AND     |
|            |                              |        HONVED DIVISION.     |
|------------|------------------------------------------------------------|
|Year.       |1914|1915 |1916 | 1917 | 1918 |1914|1915 |1916 |1917 |1918  |
|------------+----+-----+-----+------+------+----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|Total Number|    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|of Persons  |442 |2,730|4,790|11,275|25,095|632 |3,000|3,470|6,101|13,425|
|tried.      |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|------------+----+-----+-----+------+------+----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|Charged with|    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Military    |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Offences:   |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Desertion,  |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Self-       |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|inflicted   |233 |1,688|2,737|7,782 |19,838|154 | 779 | 926 |3,248|8,039 |
|Wounds,     |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Insubordi-  |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|nation,     |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Disregard of|    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Calling-up  |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Orders.     |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|------------+----+-----+-----+------+------+----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|Offences    |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|against the |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|State: High |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Treason,    |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Espionage,  |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Insults     | 52 | 66  | 336 | 397  | 559  |257 |1,471|1,223| 727 |1,007 |
|against the |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Emperor,    |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Offences    |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|against     |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Public      |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Order.      |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|------------|----+-----+-----+------+------+----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|Number of   |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Persons     |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Charged     |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|with        | 53 |  78 | 375 | 414  | 568  |730 |1,875|1,261| 839 |1,018 |
|Offences    |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|under       |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Rubric 4.   |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|------------|----+-----+-----+------+------+----+-----+-----+-----+------|
|Number of   |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|those       |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|convicted   | 3  |  3  |  7  |  2   |  1   | 46 | 48  | 22  | 17  |  --  |
|under       |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Rubric 4.   |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|------------|----+-----+-----+------+------+----+-----+-----+-----+------+
|Number of   |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|those who   |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|committed   |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|Offences    | 11 |  6  |  7  |  3   |  4   |116 | 179 | 89  | 89  |  --  |
|under Rubric|    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|4 and were  |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|acquitted.  |    |     |     |      |      |    |     |     |     |      |
|____________|____|_____|_____|______|______|____|_____|_____|_____|______|



It may be of interest to give some details of one of the regiments
whose composition was chiefly Slav. My informant, Dr. Ivo Yelavić,
served as telephone officer on the staff of the 37th Dalmatian
Regiment. At different times--at the fall of Gorica, in December 1916
at Sanmarco, and in June 1917 at Tolmein, three battalions went over
to the enemy; 170 officers (of whom 169 were reserve officers) gave
themselves up during the War. Some of them were Serbs, most were
Croats. With respect to the fall of Gorica, this was not--despite the
clamour that they made about it--due to the Italians, but to two
officers, Tolja and Salvi, who took over with them all the plans of
the underground forts and maps made to the scale of one step to a
millimetre. Among the accomplishments which the officers of this
regiment taught their men was how to surrender to the foe. Efforts
were made to bring about a different state of things: German and
Magyar regiments were placed behind it, with machine guns; the
regiment itself was filled up with Magyars. On some occasions the 37th
desisted from going over in order not to bring persecution upon their
homes. In 1914, opposite the Montenegrins at Goražda, all the plans
were worked out, but at the last moment Dr. Count Gozze (of Dubrovnik)
said he had just thought of what would happen to their families, and
they refrained. After the battalion had gone over in 1916 General
Seidler told them he would do his best to have the regiment dissolved
and the men divided among other regiments, but that not all the
officers would go. This was an ominous hint that he intended to
decimate them, after the fashion of Field-Marshal Liposcak. A
fortnight later, in the presence of Field-Marshal Boroević, General
Wurm and General Seidler, they were highly praised; and when they, in
company with a Magyar regiment, took Hill No. 166, it was announced
that this had been achieved by the "fame-covered regiment," which was
done to throw dust in the eyes of the Italians and the Entente.
Various other methods were used to escape service at the front. A Slav
doctor, whose hospital at Konjica could hold 400 patients, used to
have 4000-5000 on the books; those whom he was unable to keep he gave
convalescent leave. In this way he saved a great many of the Dalmatian
_intelligentsia_. He and another Dalmatian doctor would send the men
backwards and forwards, now to one hospital, now to another. One
ordinary method for avoiding the front was to bribe the company
commander and the N.C.O. who made out the lists. Yet sometimes there
was no help for it. When, for instance, in September 1914 they were at
Banjaluka, the enemy advanced to Palé, very near Sarajevo. My
informant has a vivid recollection of the way in which a Viennese
captain, the leader of the contingent, trembled. In a Bosnian valley
they met a woman with five small children, one of whom was at her
breast. The captain told my acquaintance (who was then a N.C.O.) to
stay behind with some men and shoot her, but not to let him hear
anything. He said that the General at Sarajevo had commanded that
everything Serb that goes on two legs must be cut down. Yelavić
refused to carry out this order, whereupon the captain told Dr.
Gozze, whom he greatly disliked, that he must do it. Gozze stayed
behind, fired a few shots in the air and informed the captain that
everything was over.

What the Austrian command really thought of the 37th Regiment, and of
others, may be seen from a report dated December 2, 1916, and signed
by the Archduke Frederick:

"... Certain events that have occurred can be explained only as the
consequences of the weak attitude of the authorities towards the
traitorous propaganda. On July 21, five soldiers of the 23rd Regiment
deserted near Pogger, and gave the Italian Command important
information regarding movements of troops and the course of the
fighting near Gorica. Quite recently a lieutenant, two reserve
officers, two N.C.O.'s and two soldiers deserted from the 37th
Regiment, as did three soldiers from the 23rd Regiment. Since April,
244 desertions have taken place from the two regiments. Inquiry shows
that these desertions occur regularly and immediately after the return
of the soldiers from leave. Unless effective counter-measures are
adopted it will be impossible to utilize these Dalmatian regiments."

It was not always an easy operation to surrender, even after one had
reached the Italian lines. A friend of mine went over with another
officer and eight men. In the first-line trenches they could see no
one and felt uncertain what to do. However, they proceeded, and from
the second-line trench their whispered calls were answered. They were
made to pass in single file, holding up their hands, and with all the
available weapons held in readiness against them. My friend, at his
request, was conducted to the colonel, and the first thing that he did
was to make a formal complaint against the way in which this army, of
which he considered himself an ally, manned its front-line trenches.

The Yugoslavs who managed to escape to Russia volunteered for service
and, after being organized by General Zivković at Odessa, formed
the two Divisions which, as is well known, did remarkable work in the
Dobrudja. One only has to hear what the Bulgars say about them. In the
battles round Constanza, during the campaign of 1916, one of these
Divisions was so frequently engaged in the most arduous positions and
had such enormous losses that it was regarded as having been wiped
out. When the Roumanian troops retreated these Yugoslavs found
themselves encircled by the Bulgarian and German armies; they hacked a
way out with their bayonets. The higher officers had come from Serbia,
the rest of them had previously been enrolled in Austria's army.
Thirty-two officers out of 500 were killed, while 300 were wounded;
and of the 42,000 men 1939 were killed and more than 8000 were
wounded. Nevertheless the _morale_ remained excellent and there was no
lack of new volunteers. "Verily," as the Serbian proverb says, "it
does not snow to kill the beasts, but in order that they may leave
their traces."


THE FAITHFUL ITALIANS

Now let us see what Austria's Italian subjects achieved in the War,
basing ourselves less upon the post-war declarations of some Istrian,
Trentino and Dalmatian Italians than upon the official Austrian
reports that were sent about these gentlemen to the Government during
the War. For example:

IMPERIAL AND ROYAL ARMY: SUPREME COMMAND.

Pr. z. 3903.

_Dalmatia: Treatment of the Croatian
    and Italian Factors._

TO THE IMPERIAL AND ROYAL MINISTER OF
    THE INTERIOR, VIENNA.

KNIN, _June_ 25, 1915.

_I permit myself to notify:_

[Herein the Statthalter, Graf Attems, praises his Government for not
having favoured one party more than another at Zadar. He proceeds to
testify to the admirable conduct of Dr. Ziliotto, the well-known mayor
(who subsequently toiled with such zeal for Italy). He says that under
this gentleman Zadar was a very model of a place, never allowing an
occasion to pass by when it was possible to show that, in grief and in
gladness, the sentiments of the glorious House of Habsburg were its
own. Thus on the "all-highest" birthday of the Emperor did the doctor
and his townsfolk revel in loyalty, while at the outbreak of the Great
War they accompanied the departing troops to the quay and provided
patriotic music and refreshments. _This worthy conduct was not in the
least modified_, says the Statthalter, _when Italy entered the War_.]

Further on in this book there are similar good-conduct testimonials
from Split, where the chief Italian used to wander down with an
Austrian official to the harbour and there witness the embarkation, in
chains, of the Yugoslav _intelligentsia_ who were being taken as
hostages. Hundreds and hundreds of Yugoslavs were shot, hanged,
imprisoned; we know the numbers (not difficult to count) of the
Italians in Dalmatia who suffered in any way. We know the equally
minute numbers who escaped to Italy and enrolled themselves in the
Italian army. As for the population of the Italian irredentist
provinces, one may read in the _Secolo_ of August 11, 1916 how it
became generally known that "with the exception of Cervignano and
Monfalcone, our soldiers have been received, on the other side of the
old frontier, with demonstrations quite the reverse of enthusiastic on
the part of the agrarian population. The surprise and disillusion of
our troops were very great, for they expected from our unredeemed
brothers, who all speak our language, a joyous reception." This
frigidity may, however, have been due to the influence of Austrian
priests and gendarmes. What are we to say, though, when we come to the
more enlightened classes? The Italians in Austria were represented by
twelve deputies who were devoted to the Austrian Government and
hostile to Italy, and by six national-liberals and one socialist who
were animated with pro-Italian sentiments. In electing such deputies,
however, the peasants may not have simply allowed the priests and the
gendarmes to command them; it is also possible that they were moved by
the fear that the Trentino would economically be ruined if it were to
become Italian and had to compete with the agricultural products of
the Kingdom. As a matter of fact it was the Trentino _intelligentsia_
which looked forward to annexation, and not, as a class, the peasants.
And, during the War, Italian deputies of various parties overflowed
with loyal Austrian sentiments; unlike the Yugoslav deputies, who
refused in a body to vote the budget and the war credits, the Italian
deputies never even ventured on a national pronouncement. Pittoni,
chief of the Italian socialists at Triest, Faidutti (who was born in
Italy) and Bugatto, the chiefs of the Italian Catholic party of
Gradišca, uttered not a few words of hate against the Madre Patria.
The Italians praise always, and with excellent reason, their three
heroes: Battisti, Rismondo and Sauro. But the Yugoslavs, in the course
of the late War, lost in the unredeemed provinces so many hundreds of
thousands who were hanged in Bosnia, who were dragged away--centenarians
and infants--to the prison camps, were spat upon and stoned and
treated in the most barbaric fashion, that they look upon those
Yugoslavs who, like Battisti, fled from Austria and afterwards were
slain by Austrians, as rather to be envied, since at any rate they
struck a blow. But anyhow the names of all these volunteers could not
be celebrated, on account of their great number. "There is nothing in
fact," wired Mr. Beaumont on December 31, 1919, from Milan for the
blameless readers of the _Daily Telegraph_, "there is nothing that
creates such terrible exasperation in Italy as the persistent
repetition of this patent falsehood that the Yugoslavs--meaning
thereby the Croats--fought for the common cause."

Poor Battisti--when his regiment was captured he feigned to be dead.
His men, however, told the Austrians that it was he, and this they did
because they said that he and his Irredentist party were to blame for
the War. These facts are now fairly well known, thanks to the Czech
doctor who was on the spot and tried to save him by assuring the
Austrians that it was not Battisti. The soldiers insisted, and in the
end the Austrians executed him.


SOUTHERN SLAVS IN THE AUSTRIAN NAVY

The several transactions or attempted transactions which took place at
various periods of the War between the Yugoslav members of the
Austro-Hungarian navy, associated with other Yugoslavs, on the one
hand and the Italian authorities on the other, were frustrated time
and again by the astounding conduct of the Italians. Had they made
anything like a proper use of the invaluable information that was
showered upon them or if they had requested the other Allied navies in
the Mediterranean to act on their behalf many Allied ships in the
Mediterranean would not have been torpedoed--since the submarine
activity centred at Kotor, one of the stations which could have been
seized--the Austrian front in Albania must have collapsed and the
entire war would have ended sooner.

In October 1917 the Austrian torpedo boat No. 11 was seized by the
Slav members of her crew and brought into Ancona, but their offers of
service were refused. The ringleaders showed, by refusing to accept
large sums of money, that their purpose was purely patriotic. The
Italians, however, simply interned them.

A much more serious affair was that of February 1, 1918, on which day
it had been arranged that the Slav sailors at Pola and Kotor should
mutiny. At the former place it did not succeed, at Kotor it was so far
successful that the mutineers, after imprisoning Admiral Njegovan and
many other officers whom they suspected of not being in sympathy with
them, took command of the ships and left unanswered an ultimatum
addressed to them by the High Naval Command. There was a prospect of
the whole fleet shaking off the Austro-Hungarian authority. The chief
revolutionary leader was Ante Sesan, a Croat ensign, twenty-six years
of age, from near Dubrovnik and the son of a well-known sea captain on
the coast. "We drew up," he says, "a proclamation representing our
case to the Yugoslavs, Czechs and Poles from the national point of
view, and to the Germans and Magyars from the socialist point of view.
The Germans threw in their lot with us, but the Magyars went against
us. From our ship we continually sent wireless messages asking for
help from the Entente fleet, and at first from Italy which was nearest
and could help most quickly. The messages were continually jammed by
sailors at the Ercegnovo station loyal to Austria-Hungary, but
nevertheless it was known in Italy that something was happening at
Kotor. We told the High Command at Bok Kotor (Bocche di Cattaro) that
we no longer recognized their authority and asked that we might get
into touch with our deputies, whom alone we recognized. The High
Command consented. We wired for the following deputies to come to us:
Trešić (Yugoslav), Stanjek (Czech), Karolyi (Magyar), Adler
(German) and one Polish deputy, but our wires did not, for the most
part, get through. Our object was to get help, but meanwhile our
situation became more and more desperate. We knew that the Third
Division was coming from Pola against us, and also the army in
Herzegovina. We were prepared to take the battery of the Punta
d'Ostro, the most important battery and the key to Bok Kotor, which
was in the hands of sailors inimical to us. The news came from Gaa
that the Magyars there had got the upper hand. We tried to bring them
over to us, but in vain. They said, 'If you don't stop this, we shall
join the Third Division and take action against you.' The Magyars from
other boats sent the same message. The Council of Sailors then debated
what was to be done, and it was suggested that Rasha (who was shot
later) should go in a hydroplane to Italy to give information on the
situation and ask for help, and that we in the meantime should lie
low, and in the event of help coming, again raise a revolt. Rasha
objected that he did not know Italian, and proposed that I should go.
The Third Division meanwhile was already in the port Bok Kotor.

"At half-past eight in the morning we flew away in the hydroplane to
Italy, I and two Poles. At ten we reached Mattinato, and I explained
at the Carabineers' station why I had come and asked to be brought as
soon as possible before the Commander of the District. Later I saw
Captain Odo (of the Territorials) and told him all, and asked him to
put me into communication with Brindisi, Taranto or Rome. He had us
put under arrest. I was interviewed by two flying officers two days
later, but they went off to Brindisi in my hydroplane without me.

"On February 17 I was taken under armed escort to Brindisi, where I
was imprisoned in a cabin of the man-of-war _Varese_.... I told the
commander of the ship that I was at his disposal with all my knowledge
of the Austrian fleet. I asked him to put questions, because I did
not know how much he knew. It was all to no purpose. On February 21
the Admiral in command at Brindisi saw me. From what he said I
understood that nothing had been done about Bok Kotor and, what was
more, that not one hydroplane had been sent to investigate the
situation there. I learned that I was to go to Rome. They clapped me
into barracks.... I again asked the Italians to allow me to speak to
the Serbian Minister, whom I considered the representative of the
Yugoslav people, but the request was refused on the plea that it was a
question of high politics. Meanwhile the Polish representative
Zamorski was allowed to visit the Poles, but from February 3 to May 25
I was unable to get into communication with any of our people."

In May there was another outbreak at Kotor, but it was overpowered,
and many Yugoslav sailors were shot or imprisoned. Sesan was also kept
in his Italian prison, though occasionally he was brought out,
questioned and then taken back again. Thus at Ferrara he informed
Captain Ciano about the whole organization of the Austrian offensive
and defensive forces, and especially about Pola and Split. Sesan
begged to be allowed to take part in the action against the Austrian
fleet, and, at Rome, where he came before Captain Soldati, of the
Bureau of Information, he made the same request. With two motor
launches he undertook to organize communication between Italy and the
Slavs of Dalmatia, in this way to follow events in Austria and help
the revolutionary movement. It would be possible to procure the secret
wireless codes which the Austrian and German submarines used--but the
Italians would do nothing, because they were not willing to recognize
that the Yugoslavs were fighting against Austria.... Seeing that he
would never move the Italians to take serious action against the
Austrian fleet, Sesan asked to be sent to the Serbian army in
Macedonia, so that at Salonica he could get into touch with the French
and British fleet. In this also he failed, for he was interned from
June till December with Yugoslav officers at Nocera Umbra. While there
he was visited by Bissolati, from whom he learned that the Chief of
the Admiralty was hostile to the Yugoslavs. And at Nocera Umbra he
remained until December 6, when he was liberated, owing to the
efforts of Trumbić and other members of the Yugoslav Committee.

In the month of September a memorandum was drawn up by Trumbić, in
which he proposed to English and American political and military
circles the landing at Šibenik of a force of 50,000 men. This would
have been assisted by the mutinous crews of the Austro-Hungarian
Fleet, whose preparations had been completed in July (at this port 90
per cent. of the sailors of the fleet were Yugoslavs, and among them
there was a strong national feeling; in fact, if their political
leaders had not held them back, they would have endeavoured in July to
blow up the naval fortifications and sail with the ships to Corfu).
The expeditionary army, once at Šibenik, could have penetrated
inland and, acting in consort with the many Yugoslav deserters and the
insurgent population of Dalmatia and Bosnia, have accelerated the
Austrian _débâcle_. In this memorandum Trumbić asked that the
combined Anglo-American-French fleet should support the action, but
that the Italians, whom the Yugoslavs distrusted, should take no part.
He sneered at the cowardice of the Italians who, with a huge army, did
not dare to start an offensive on a grand scale.

[In well-informed circles in Italy this memorandum was already known,
but when it was read in the Italian Chamber in the spring of 1919 it
made a considerable sensation.]

On October 3, Messrs. Frederick Štepanek, Rudolph Giunio, Valentine
Zić (of Šibenik) and other authorized Czecho-Slovak and Yugoslav
emissaries went in a sailing-boat from Vis to Italy, with a view to
getting into connection with Dr. Beneš (afterwards the
Czecho-Slovak Foreign Minister) and Dr. Trumbić, to inform them as
to the situation in the Monarchy and to obtain instructions regarding
the moment of the revolution in which their soldiers and sailors were
to participate. On arrival in Rome on October 7, the delegates were
interrogated by Major Trojani of the Bureau of Information and on the
same day for three hours by the Inspector-General of Public Safety.
From then till October 20, they were interned in the Macoa barracks at
the Castro Pretoris, and although they made repeated attempts to see
a member of the Yugoslav Committee or Dr. Beneš, who was in Rome,
they were told that this "delicate" question could only be solved by
the Premier himself; and when brought before him Dr. Beneš had
departed. The delegates had entreated that he and Trumbić should be
informed of their arrival, but in spite of various assurances nothing
whatever was done. It is suggested that the fleet would have been in
Slav hands two or three weeks earlier, which would very probably have
precipitated events on the Western front, if the Italians had not
acted in this inexcusable fashion.


ADVANCE OF THE ALLIES IN MACEDONIA

The collapse of Austria-Hungary was being hastened by the fine work of
the Allies' Macedonian army. France and Great Britain had provided for
the re-equipment of the Serbs. And of the variegated forces that were
based on Salonica none did more magnificently than this resurrected
army. A weather-beaten sergeant of the French Infanterie Coloniale
told me that he had never seen an exploit such as that of
Kaimatčalan, where the Serbs set themselves the task of climbing to
the summit, which towers 8000 feet high, and from there dislodging the
Bulgarian artillery. Over and over again the Serbs were thrown back,
and with terrific losses, for the mountain-side was strewn with rocks
not large enough to shelter more than a man or two. But as the
Infanterie Coloniale is habitually chosen for the roughest work, so
the Serbs asked for nothing better than to climb the wall that shut
them out from their own country. The labyrinth of trenches on the
mountain-top was taken and retaken many times, until the
Bulgars--inadequately supported by their Allies--had to retreat; and
this, after further ferocious fighting, enabled the Serbs and the
French to liberate Monastir. The complicated story of Greek
manœuvres need not detain us, nor need we ask whether Mr. Leland
Buxton[103] is justified in saying that the majority of that people
were pro-German, "but were subsequently compelled by the Allied
blockade ... to declare themselves supporters of Venizelos, on whose
behalf, indeed, the British Admiralty and War Office had to carry on a
sort of election campaign (by Eastern European methods) until the
numerous waverers wisely decided that it was better to be a well-fed
Venizelist than a hungry Royalist." Sufficient that after months of
delaying, in the course of which the Russian troops had to be turned
into labour battalions, Marshal Mišić--whose plan of campaign
had fortunately been adopted--had the satisfaction of seeing his own
countrymen and their Allies racing up at last through Macedonia and
Serbia to the Danube and beyond it.... What did they find? Bridges
hastily blown up, tunnels rendered impassable by two locomotives laden
with dynamite being made to collide in the middle of them--but the
Serbs went rushing on. The supply columns could not keep pace with the
troops--during the first eight days of the offensive the men of the
2nd Army received but two days' rations--they continued their advance
across the Vardar, though but little bread and practically no other
food was obtainable. In three days they had covered sixty miles. There
was only time for them to greet the women and old men--and even if
they had then been told of the 130,000 horses, the 6,000,000 sheep and
goats, the 2,000,000 pigs, 1,300,000 cattle and over 8,000,000 poultry
which the enemy had taken; if they had learned that the losses
sustained by Serbia--exclusive of her own expenses and of the war
loans from her Allies--amounted to some 10,000,000,000 frs. on a
pre-war valuation, what did all this matter in that joyous time?


HOW THE MAGYARS TREATED THEIR SERBIAN SUBJECTS

At the beginning of the War the dominant Magyars of the Banat had as
little uncertainty about the result as Count Julius Andrássy professed
to have at a later period. "Victory must come to our troops," he said,
"because they are better organized and more efficient, and because
they are, above all, filled with unexampled enthusiasm, which makes
heroes of them all." The enthusiasm which, for instance, caused the
mob at Velika Kikinda to shout "Eljen a haboru!" ["Long live the
War!"] while they fired revolvers in at the windows of an
unilluminated house because it was the house of a Serb, a son-in-law
of the well-known banker, Marko Bogdan, without stopping to ascertain
that he was at the front fighting against Serbia, might be dismissed
as a folly on the part of the crowd if it were not so characteristic
of the whole Magyar administration. The "subject nationalities" were
to be enrolled in the Magyar host and treated, at the same time, with
contumely. At Veršac Dr. Slavko Miletić,[104] son of the famous
patriot, was suspected not only of cherishing Serbian sympathies,
which was natural, but of committing a felony. The authorities
believed that in his medical capacity he was exempting people from
their military service, and not for the advantage of the Serbian cause
so much as for that of his own pocket. Several detectives were
therefore put to bed in one or two of the wards of the military
hospital; and the upshot of it was that three other doctors--all of
them Magyars--who had given way to these practices, committed suicide;
the chief of the hospital poisoned himself, one of the staff shot
himself, and the third culprit hanged himself in prison. Dr.
Miletić had previously been kept for three and a half months under
the shadow of a conviction for high treason: one Bonchocat, a
Roumanian who did not understand the Serbian language, asserted that
the doctor, at a meeting held two weeks before the Archduke's
assassination, must have known that war was brewing, since--so said
Bonchocat--he had not confined himself to Serbian ecclesiastical
affairs, which was the object of the meeting, but had uttered the
remark that if the Austrians had bayonets the Serbs had axes. Although
Bonchocat was a man condemned to nine years' penal servitude for
murder, and although the doctor only called on his own behalf two
witnesses who were not Serbs, but the head of the frontier police and
the head of the town police, he was nevertheless kept in suspense for
three and a half months. Afterwards, owing to the lack of Magyar
doctors, he was begged to be the State doctor for the town. Similarly
the Orthodox priest, Radulović, of Pančevo, was transported to
Arad and interned there for no other reason than his nationality,
whereas his son, a first lieutenant of the Hungarian Honved, was
expected to be very loyal. When certain rumours came to the son's
ears--he was then serving on the Russian front--he inquired, and was
told that his father had merely been warned. Presently he learned the
truth, and in consequence deserted to the Russians and became a member
of the Yugoslav brigade. Thus it will be seen that the Magyar unwisdom
was on a par with that which they had shown in days of peace.
Unfortunately for their State the Magyar politicians were less honest
than the Magyar peasants, so that the de-nationalizing process met
with pretty firm resistance. What can be said for the honesty of a
legal decision which laid it down that as two Serbian philanthropists,
Barajevac and Sandulović, at Pančevo had not specially mentioned
that the funds they had bequeathed for a school were to be for a
Serbian school--(this the benefactors had assumed as a matter of
course)--they must be used for a Magyar establishment? Save for the
officials there were practically no Magyars in Pančevo. And when
the War began the remainder of the fund was invested by the Magyars in
their War Loan! It is curious, by the way, to see what methods were
employed to make the Loan successful. Fathers were frequently told
that if their subscription was adequate their sons at the front would
duly be granted leave. The Slovak village of Kovačica in the Banat
was compelled to put three million crowns into War Loan, the Magyar
notary making a list of the amounts which every person had to pay
under penalty of being sent to the front; if he was too old for this
he was threatened with internment. Kovačica, a few years before the
War, had shown the Magyar fitness for governing an alien people. The
population consisted of 5200 Lutheran Slovaks and 200 miscellaneous
persons--Jews, Magyars and Germans. Nevertheless it was ordered that
the church services must be in the Magyar and not in the Slovak
language. When the parishioners objected, the police, with sticks and
guns, expelled them from the large, lofty church, and 83 of them were
sentenced to various periods of imprisonment. Serbian barristers
defended them gratuitously, but the judge had himself taken an active
part in turning the people out of the church; and presently the
barristers were told that they had themselves been convicted--Dr.
Dušan Bošcović for one year, on the ground that he had had
the napkins at a banquet decorated with the Serbian colours; Dr.
Branislav Stanojević for three years, because his visits to
Belgrade, where his parents and his brother were living, stamped him,
said the Magyar judge, as a traitor. The total number of Magyars at
Kovačica was ten, and for a time they came to hear their language,
which had thus been compulsorily introduced. Handbills were sent round
to summon the Magyars from neighbouring villages, but gradually this
congregation grew smaller and smaller. When two Magyars attended, then
the pastor gave them a sermon; if only one was present he confined
himself to prayers. The Magyars had seen to it, by the way, that there
should not be much sympathy between the pastor and his bishop: of this
diocese about three-quarters were Slovaks and one-quarter Germans and
Magyars; but the Government vetoed the choice of Dr. Czalva, who was
disqualified for being friendly to the Slovaks--his father and
grandfather had both been bishops of that same diocese--and a certain
Dr. Raffay was appointed, who spoke nothing but Magyar and some words
of German.... However, by taking in this way a few examples of Magyar
methods, one may be accused of having chosen merely those which
illustrate one's theme. It would be hazardous to draw conclusions as
to Magyar officers in general because a certain Lieutenant Chaby, who,
during the War, found himself quartered on a Serbian family of the
name of Stejvović at Priboj in the Sandjak, behaved differently
from his predecessor, an Austrian colonel. This Austrian had been well
satisfied, but the lieutenant's first night was so disturbed that he
fined his hosts sixty crowns for giving him a bug-ridden bed.
Nevertheless, if large numbers of Austrian colonels and Magyar
lieutenants had acted in a similar fashion we should be justified in
deducing that several characteristics, be they good or bad, are
possessed by the average Magyar subaltern. And the catalogue of Magyar
limitations in the Banat, both prior to and during the War, is so
voluminous that one would have thought them to be not worth
discussing; if one restricts oneself to a few it is in order to avoid
being tedious, and if they are ineffective among the resolute
pro-Magyars of this country, then one must resign oneself to leaving
these gentlemen unconvinced. They will argue that stupidity is
universal, and that the Magyar authorities should not be called in
question for their treatment of the priest of Crvna Crkva, a village
with 1108 inhabitants--1048 Serbs, 34 Slovaks, 17 Germans and 9
Magyars. This intelligent man--he is a noted player of a complicated
card game--was indicted for high treason, because on hearing that the
Emperor William was alleged to have undertaken to slaughter every
Serb, the priest remarked that the Emperor should have added, "if God
wills it." But near the village of Zlatica there was, at the beginning
of the War, one Adam Rada, who was charged with making signals to the
Serbs across the Danube by means of lights, and this although the
situation of Rada's mill made such a thing impossible. Before being
executed he was led ceremoniously through the village, his coffin
being carried in the procession. This coffin was so small that Rada's
feet had to be cut off. The grave was guarded by a soldier, who kept
the family away from it; Rada's servant was in the hands of the
police--after having been thrashed in order to compel him to give
hostile evidence, he was convicted to six years' imprisonment. But the
lack of evidence does not appear to have weighed very strongly with
the Magyar judges. "It is quite true," said one of them in 1915 in the
town of Bela Crkva, during the trial of a young priest, Voyn
Voynović, "that there are witnesses who say he did not utter
certain words in 1913, and no witnesses who say that he did; but I am
convinced that he uttered them." The ferocity of the punishments may
be seen from the example of Alexa Petković of Pančevo, the
father of nine, who was condemned to hard labour for nine years
because his twelve-year-old son, during the War, is alleged to have
said to him: "Father, don't accept German money; it won't have any
value." At the same place, in 1914, the Serbian peasants were brought
in from the village of Bortša; there was no proof that they were
traitors, but they had been denounced and they were sentenced to be
shot. With a military escort they were promenaded through the town,
each one of them having to hold a Hungarian flag. At the scene of
execution the Hungarian élite, together with their wives and
daughters, were assembled. And after the bodies had been thrown on to
a cart they were flogged, for some unknown reason, by one Blajek, a
detective, while the audience cried "Eljen!" ["Hurrah!"]. But the War
brought to an end the bad old days of a tyrannous minority. It will be
shown, in a year or two, when a proper census is taken, that the
Magyars were always much more in a minority than they ever admitted.
Instead of nine millions out of the eighteen millions--which was the
pre-war population of Hungary--it will be found that the Magyars
themselves numbered barely six millions, though in their efforts to
obtain recruits they charged only one crown and afterwards nothing at
all for a naturalization paper. The day has gone by when a father
could be interned for being a Serb, while his son, an assistant
notary, was reckoned a Magyar--only Magyars being eligible for that
office. The day has gone when the Buda-Pest Government could order its
officials while taking a census to swell the Magyars' numbers as much
as possible: the officials at Subotica confessed on oath, after the
War, that they had received orders to this effect. One of their
practices was to put down as "uncertain" those Serbian children who
were too young to speak. Even those who were most willing to be
absorbed into magyardom were often indigested: one finds in the
statistics cases of converted Jews who, being asked to state their
religion and nationality, replied to the former question "Catholic"
and to the latter "Jew."


THE SOUTHERN SLAVS PAY PART OF THEIR DEBT TO THE HABSBURG MONARCHY

If the practices of Buda-Pest had been less flagrant one would write
of Hungary's decomposition with a certain sympathy. It is conceivable
that in the British Empire there are anti-British elements whose aims
would commonly be classed by the authorities as "mad ambitions," which
is what Count Apponyi called the separatist tendencies of the Southern
Slavs in Austria-Hungary. But--may the platitude be pardoned!--there
is all the difference between the spirit in which the alien rule of
the one government was, and of the other is, administered. No doubt
there are portions of the British Empire in which a plebiscite would
have the same disintegrating result as it would have had in most of
the regions that have been lopped from Hungary. We, with our Allies,
declined to permit a plebiscite in Hungary's late territories, since
we believed that the population had overwhelmingly displayed its
wishes at the end of the War; and an Englishman may hope to escape the
charge of hypocrisy if he does not permit the withholding of a
plebiscite from certain of his fellow-subjects to prevent him from
alluding with satisfaction to those who have been liberated from the
sway of Buda-Pest.


(a) IN SYRMIA

Everywhere the dawn was breaking for the Habsburg's Southern Slavs. At
Vukovar in Syrmia--to take an example--there was formed, as elsewhere,
a National Council. Under Baron Joseph Rajacsich, a grandson of the
Patriarch and--to all appearances--a brother of Falstaff, the Council
maintained order until the coming of the Serbian army. An Austrian
naval captain with a floating arsenal, four steamers and twenty-two
drifters, was held up, as he proposed to sail towards Buda-Pest, by
being told of a battery at Dalja, higher up the Danube. However, the
Vukovar townsfolk, in view of a possible explosion, begged that the
prisoner, who had wept at being stopped, should be sent on his way.
The German harbour-master, a lieutenant, assured the Baron that he
would assist him if he were allowed to keep his liberty. But he was
tempted, in the middle of a night, to assist two German captains who
were trying to get through, each with a string of drifters. Rajacsich,
whose armed force consisted of forty Serbian ex-prisoners and fifty of
his own workmen--he armed them with what he found on the drifters--had
no means of stopping the German boats. But after telephoning in vain
to the ex-harbour-master, he fired a shot into one of the boats, which
fortunately found the kitchen, and made such a terrible noise among
the pots and pans that the Germans considered it more prudent to
remain. The Baron succeeded in sending back to Belgrade altogether 39
steamers and 217 loaded drifters, which contained booty, even from the
Ukraine, that was valued at about a milliard crowns; ... but the
Austro-Hungarians managed to get away with a considerable amount of
plunder. The people of Buda-Pest were surprised, on the morning of
November 5, to find the _Sophie_, one of the most luxurious passenger
steamers on the Danube, lying at their quay, with her decks groaning
under such a pile of packing-cases and parcels and furniture and all
kinds of objects heaped upon each other as almost to make the boat
unrecognizable. A lieutenant with a dozen soldiers was sent to
investigate, and the captain showed him an order from the Minister of
War, commanding that the _Sophie_ should take on board the Military
Government in Serbia and transport it to Vienna. But the Buda-Pest
authorities insisted on removing all the articles whose ownership the
passengers were unable to prove; and it took a whole day to unload the
enormous quantities of flour, leather, clothing, poultry, sugar, fats,
etc. General Rhemen, the former military governor of Serbia, related
that on October 5 he received the order to begin the military
evacuation of Serbia. This was carried on day by day, and on October
28 it was completed. "We sent by the railway and by boats," said
Colonel Kerchnaive to the Hungarian journalists, "4000 carloads of
wheat, 10,000 fat oxen, 10,000 transport oxen, 10,000 pigs, 4000
sheep, 15 carloads of wine, 400 carloads of jam, enormous quantities
of wood, of telephone material, of arms, munitions and 16 million
crowns in silver." Such was the "military evacuation" of Serbia....
And at the beginning of the same month, when the whole Austro-Hungarian
monarchy was in a state of collapse, Baron Hussarek stood up in the
Reichsrath and said that "the task will arise for the Government
carefully to prepare and inaugurate the difficult but hopeful work of
reconstructing the monarchy on the basis of national autonomy." The
imperturbable Prime Minister announced that "we shall have to go to
work and set our house in order." But you will say that the Baron was
a futile Mrs. Partington, an isolated antagonist of the inevitable,
and only mentioned here for the sake of dramatic effect. Not at all!
So far from being laughed at everywhere as an absurd reactionary he
was held in the highest Buda-Pest circles to be a perilous innovator.
He actually spoke about conciliating the Austro-Hungarian Slavs: not
so Count Tisza. "What is happening in Austria," exclaimed the grim
Calvinist a few months before, "are strange, grotesque displays of the
ridiculous symptoms of the presumptuous mentality of people of no
importance."


(b) IN SLOVENIA

One further example of Southern Slav activity may be given, as it will
show us what was happening among the pious and industrious Slovenes.
It would have been unnatural if the Clerical party had longed for
Austria's downfall, and a large number of priests would still have
been Austrophil[105] if Dr. Jeglić, the eminent Prince-Bishop of
Ljubljana, had not summoned all the political parties and caused them
to adopt a patriotic Yugoslav attitude. (His retirement was in
consequence demanded; but the Pope, who asked him for an explanation
of the whole movement, was quite satisfied. Nor would Vienna have been
able to take any serious steps against the Bishop, seeing that most of
the Slovenes were behind him.) But the small Slovene people could,
until November 1, 1918, offer nothing more than a passive resistance
to their masters. They did not dare to speak Slovene in public. "What
is the easiest language in the world?" was being asked in Maribor on
the 1st of November. It was the language which so many people had
apparently learned in a single night. The people were Slovenes, the
officials were Austrian--though one or two of the officials were
Slovenes and a minority of the people claimed to be Austrians, this
being more marked in the town of Maribor (where the German-Austrians
were as many as 35 per cent.) than in the surrounding district (where
95 per cent. are Yugoslav). Dr. Jeglić had prepared the forces that
were going to break their bonds on that fateful day. At 7 a.m. Dr.
Srečko Lajnšić--one of the rare Slovene officials--he had
been denounced by two of his colleagues and imprisoned at the
beginning of the War, for having, as they said, "laughed maliciously"
at Great Britain resolving to fight--Dr. Lajnšić and his friend
General Maister took over the administration in the name of the
Yugoslav State. General Maister had been till then a Major,
employed--as he was a political suspect--on dépôt work. And when the
eight or nine Austrian colonels appeared on November 1 before
Lajnšić, the genial official, and Maister, they were informed by
the latter that he was a General--he looks like a swarthy Viking--and
they were asked to surrender their swords. As they did not know how
many men the General had behind him--as a matter of fact he had
nine--they acted on his suggestion; one of them wept as he did so. At
11 a.m. Lajnšić deposed all the chief civil officials in that
part of Styria, and the General persuaded the 47th Regiment to leave
by train. They were influenced by a notice in the papers which said
that 100,000 Frenchmen (invented by the General and Lajnšić) had
just arrived at Ljubljana. After this the two companions carried on at
Maribor; very little was known of them for a month at Ljubljana,
Zagreb or Belgrade. But then they were confirmed in the posts they had
assumed and Maister became a regular General. They were not
intolerant; they expelled less than ten people, although so many of
the German-Austrians had come, under the auspices of the Südmark
Verein (a colonization society) or the Deutsche Schulverein (an
educational body), to propagate Germanism. One of these colonists, a
doctor, who had lived a dozen years in Maribor, could only say "Good
morning" in Slovene; and German women in the market-place (themselves
unable to speak proper German) used to insist on the Slovene peasants
speaking a language of which they knew scarcely a word. Lajnšić
and Maister took no steps against the Bishop of Maribor who, three
months after the Austrian collapse, celebrated a Mass in honour of the
ex-Emperor. This Bishop, the son of Slovene peasants, had been
educated near Vienna, had been a confessor of the House of Habsburg,
and he found it difficult to regard himself as a Slovene. Gradually
the voice of his own people spoke in him and then, after very long and
honourable mental conflict, he developed into an excellent Yugoslav.
He and Maister are, both of them, poets. Most of the General's
pieces--which are all in Slovene--treat of love and nature. But he
wrote at least one set of other verses, which the Austrians suppressed
during the War. This is the nearest translation I can make of them:

    Have pity, Christ, on Thy poor folk,
      For now the fields are desolate
      And misery and famine wait
    On all, the chimneys give no smoke--
    Our men have marched away from us.

    Soon will the village bells have gone
      From their dark places up on high,
      And we who watch will never tie
    Gay blossoms round them, and upon
    Their path no laughter will resound.

    Beloved bells, when thunder rolled
      And lightning threatened us you swayed,
      Our music-censers, and you prayed
    That God Almighty would behold
    The danger and be merciful.

    O bells that sang of love and joy,
      A foul destruction you will spread.
      Once you moaned sweetly for the dead
    And now 'tis you that will destroy,
    And on their course the bullets moan.

    But once again, O bells, we pray,
      Let the tremendous music roll.
      Sing us the secrets of your soul,
    And then your last song of dismay
    And wrath and sacrilegious death.

    FOOTNOTES:

    [Footnote 80: Cf. "Le Progrès politique et économique sous le
    Régne de Pierre I.," by A. Mousset, in _Yugoslavia_, December
    15, 1921.]

    [Footnote 81: In all, 7130 boys and girls were removed from
    Bosnia-Herzegovina. And a year or two after the end of the
    war a good many of them were still with their foster-parents
    in other parts of Yugoslavia. They preferred to remain there,
    because of the lack of food in their own homes; the parents
    of many--especially in Herzegovina--had been hanged, and
    others had been for so long away from their parents that they
    had no keen desire to return to them.]

    [Footnote 82: Quoted in the _Times_ of September 24, 1919.]

    [Footnote 83: Cf. _Serbia's Part in the War_, vol. i., by
    Crawfurd Price. London, 1918.]

    [Footnote 84: He intervened, for example, near Lazarevac,
    where he observed, with tears in his eyes, that one of the
    finest regiments, the 10th Šumadija, was giving way to
    overwhelming numbers. He told them that he intended to stay
    where he was, and he invited any soldier who wished to remain
    with him to do so. Every man remained. "Très charmant," was
    the comment of the colonel, an eye-witness, who told me of
    this incident.]

    [Footnote 85: Cf. _Manchester Guardian_, October 22, 1921.]

    [Footnote 86: Cf. _Nineteenth Century and After_, January
    1922.]

    [Footnote 87: Cf. _Dokumenti o postanku Kraljevine Srba,
    Hrvata i Slovenaca, 1914-1919_, by Ferdo Šišić. Zagreb,
    1920.]

    [Footnote 88: Cf. _International Law_, Part I. p. 321.]

    [Footnote 89: _Italy and the Yugoslavs: A Question of
    International Law._ Paris, 1919.]

    [Footnote 90: July 17, 1920.]

    [Footnote 91: I think that, in so far as concerns this
    article in the _New Europe_ (July 8, 1920), it is fairer to
    describe Mr. Trevelyan as an Italian exponent rather than
    apologist. Although we cannot agree with various remarks of
    his, he makes it clear that he is out of sympathy with the
    Italian extremists. He deprecates also the views of those
    English publicists who are altogether on the side of the
    Yugoslavs. "The truth, perhaps," says he, "lies somewhere hid
    in the centre." And if that is not a very happy observation,
    it is at any rate much more moderate than the average views
    of those English writers whose spiritual home is in Italy.]

    [Footnote 92: Byron, _Childe Harold_.]

    [Footnote 93: About 36,000 boys--partly recruits and partly
    boys of more tender years--started over the mountains, and
    some 20,000 of them perished.]

    [Footnote 94: This officer, aided by others, was charged with
    having organized an attempt to overthrow the Yugoslav
    National Council soon after its constitution in the autumn of
    1918. The day of the counter-revolution was to be November
    25, according to the _Hrvatska Riječ_ of November 23. The
    General and others were arrested, but as he was able to prove
    his innocence he was liberated.]

    [Footnote 95: _With Serbia into Exile._ New York, 1916.]

    [Footnote 96: Cf. _The Question_, by Isidora Sekulić.]

    [Footnote 97: _Revue des Deux Mondes_, January 1, 1917.]

    [Footnote 98: In contrast with this attitude that was adopted
    at Nikita's command one must mention the transactions of a
    Podgorica merchant, M. Burič, and his partners, who sold
    150,000 kilos of grain to the retreating army at cost price,
    that is, at one dinar per kilo when they could have obtained
    five. Two million kilos of hay they sold at 8 paras per kilo
    instead of at 50 or more. There were at this time only 20
    tons of flour in all Montenegro. Undoubtedly the refusal of
    Burič and his friends to profit from the distress of their
    brother Serbs was much more typical of the Montenegrins than
    the conduct which Nikita drew forth from the weak side of
    their character.]

    [Footnote 99: Cf. an article in the _Gazette de Lausanne_,
    November 29, 1917, by Danilo Gatalo, a former Montenegrin
    Minister of War.]

    [Footnote 100: Cf. p. 204.]

    [Footnote 101: _Ex-King Nicholas and his Court_ (Collection
    of eighteen original documents in facsimile). Sarajevo,
    1919.]

    [Footnote 102: These almost incredible facts are vouched for
    by Dr. Sekula Drljević, ex-Minister of Justice and Finance,
    who was one of the internees at Karlstein.]

    [Footnote 103: _The Black Sheep of the Balkans._ London,
    1920.]

    [Footnote 104: In 1919 this very popular physician became
    Minister of Public Health in a Coalition Cabinet, and in 1920
    he became Minister of Posts and Telegraphs.]

    [Footnote 105: A couple of months before the triumph of the
    Yugoslav idea one of these priests, Dr. Alexius Ušeničnik,
    Professor of Theology, published at Ljubljana a little book
    packed with ancient and modern quotations from Latin and
    French, Italian and German sources. He called it _Um die
    Yugoslavija; Eine Apologie_; and in the strongest terms he
    combated the reproach that the Slovene bishop, the clergy and
    the people were not loyal to the Habsburgs. Dr. Ušeničnik
    proved that the poor Slovenes were suffering an almost
    intolerable subjection at the hands of the Germans, but he
    persisted in demanding nothing more than freedom within the
    Habsburg Monarchy. "The Monarchy," said our unhappy author,
    "is in the midst of its development." And this priest, who
    was so deaf to the grand Yugoslav idea, quoted with approval
    the words of Gustave le Bon: "Ideas take a long time in
    possessing the people's soul."]

END OF VOLUME I.




INDEX OF VOLUME I

(_The Names of Books and Newspapers are in Italics._)


Aerenthal (Count) and the bombs, 206.
-- -- and Bosnia, 204.

Agram, _see_ Zagreb.

Albania, part of, offered to the Serbs, 251.

Albanian activities, 72 _et seq._, 219.
-- language, 13, 14.

Alexander (King of Serbia), the lamentable, 194 _et seq._
-- (King of Yugoslavia), 232 _et seq._
-- (Pope), 40.
-- (Prince), the frigid, 117, 122.

Alphabet, Slav, 29.

Andrássy (Count Julius), his confidence, 290.

Apponyi on mad ambitions, 295.

Arad and the Serbs, 117-8.
-- Executions at, 125.
-- the Magyar slaughter-house, 235 _et seq._

_Arbeiter-Zeitung_ on Berchtold, 229.

Austria and Macedonia, 220.
-- -- some atrocities, 225 _et seq._
-- -- some intrigues (and _see_ Habsburgs), 25, 30, 118,
        176, 177, 187, 193 _et seq._

_Avenire_, a newspaper, 67.


Bach, his "huzzars," 127.

Bačka, 62, 72 _et passim_.

Bahr (H.), his _Dalmatinische Reise_, 201.

Banat, the frontier regiments, 82 _et seq._
-- German colonists, 82 _et seq._
-- Migrants to, 62, 72.
-- Revolt in, 71, 121.
-- Serbs and Roumanians, 188 _et seq._

Baranja, 62 _et passim_.

Barbulescu (Prof.) on Macedonian language, 166.

Bartlett (C. A. H.) on Treaty of London, 246, 247.

Battisti, how he died, 284.

Beaumont, of the _Daily Telegraph_, 284.

Bečirović, the Macedonian schoolmaster, 169.

Belgrade, 7, 62, 149, 243-4, 260.

Belloc (H.), his pronouncements, 163, 164.

Beneš (Dr. E.), his _Détruisez l'Autriche-Hongrie_, 192.
-- -- in Italy, 288-9.

Berchtold (Count) and the Great War, 213-4, 229.

Berlin Congress, 24-5.

Bilinski (Dr.), his tears, 228.

Bismarck on the Balkans, 24.

Bissolati, the gallant Minister, 287.

_Blackwood's Magazine_, quoted, 10.

Bogomile heresy, 37, 45 _et seq._, 126.

Bonchocat, a murderer's testimony, 291.

Boppe, the French Minister, on the Serbs, 260.

Bosnia and the Magyars, 235.
-- and Michael, 148.
-- and the Powers, 153, 177, 204.
-- under the Turks, 56, 117, 176.
-- _see_ Tvertko.

Boué (Ami), his _La Turquie d'Europe_, 138-9.

Brailsford (H. N.), his _Macedonia_, 72-3, 198, 199, 219.

Branković, the despot, 47, 58.
-- George (a descendant), 71-2.
-- Vuk, 48, 62.

Bratti (R.), his _La Fine della Serenissima_, 39.

Bresse (L.), his _Le Monténégro Inconnu_, 210.

Brkić (Patriarch), his description, 80, 277.

Bulgarian language, 13-4, 34, 80-1, 139, 140, 166.
-- origins, 33 _et seq._

Bulgars, attitude to Serbia and Yugoslavia, 11 _et seq._,
        44-5, 149, 166 _et seq._, 193.
-- enter the War, 248 _et seq._

_Bulletin Hellénique_, quoted, 37.

Bulwer (Sir H.), his advice, 158.

Bunjevci, 86 _et seq._

Buric, the patriotic merchant, 262.
-- (Vassilje), his brother, 268-9.

Buxton (Leland), his _Black Sheep of the Balkans_, 289, 290.
-- -- his unfortunate proposal, 221.


Čabrinović and the Sarajevo crime, 216, 218.

Čačak and Miloš, 137.

Cahun (L.), his _Introduction à l'Histoire de l'Asie_, 36.

Čarnoević (Arsenius), the Patriarch, 72 _et seq._

Cattalinich, his _Memorie_, 92.

Cattaro, _see_ Kotor.

Cavour, 66, 123, 140 _et seq._

Chiala (Gl.), his _Letters of Count Cavour_, 141.

Chopin (J.), his _Le Complot de Sarajevo_, 218.

Christić (Annie) on Serb women in the War, 260.

Christoff, _see_ Tartaro-Bulgar.

Cippico (Antonio), his arguments, 144-5.

Čiprovtsi, its outbreak, 71.

Clergy in Croatia, 129.
-- in Czecho-Slovakia, 130 _et seq._

Codelli (Baron), his rules, 96.

Constantine (King) and the Serbs, 252-3.

Corfu, Declaration of, 271-2.
-- Serbs at, 270.

Crijević (Elias), the renegade, 65.

Croats, their history, 25, 29, 30-1, 38, 40, 46 _et seq._,
        69, 112 _et seq._, 119 _et seq._, 125.
-- relations with Serbs, 177, 187-8, 205, 239 _et seq._,
        254 _et seq._, 275 _et seq._

Ćuk (Madame), her good work, 228.

Čuplikac (Colonel), the voivoda, 119, 123.

Cvijić (Prof.), 14, 36, 175.

Cyril (Saint), 29.

Czecho-Slovakia, disapproval of, 10.
-- its national Church, 130 _et seq._


_Daily Telegraph_, quoted, 284.

Dalmatia, its Christianity, 29.
-- suggested settlers, 94.
-- and Venice, 40, 41, 47, 50 _et seq._, 64.
-- _see_ Morlaks and Tommaseo.

Dandolo (Vincenzo), 100.

Danica, the brotherhood, 113.

Danilo (Crown Prince), the financier, 201 _et seq._,
        209 _et seq._, 264, 276.
-- (Prince), his death, 145-6.

Deak (Francis), his liberal methods, 143, 160.

Debidour, his _Histoire diplomatique_, 154.

Democracy of Serbs, 61, 233.

Devil, _see_ Alphabet.

Devine (A.), the apologist, 204, 211.

D'Intignano (F. M.), his _I Morlacchi_, 54.

Djakovica, some years ago, 73.

Dobrila (Bishop George), 142.

Dolci, his fate, 99, 100.

Drašković, his _Exhortation_, 112.

Drljević (Dr. S.) on Danilo, 209.
-- -- on Montenegrin Red Cross, 274.

Dubourdieu, 104-5.

Dubrovnik, her dissolution, 101.
-- her glory, 41, 48-9, 64 _et seq._
-- her moral height, 91.
-- her poets, 54, 65-6.

Durham (Edith), her _High Albania_, 73.
-- -- her partiality, 206.
-- -- in praise of Albanians, 198, 259.
-- -- her _Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle_, 206.

Dušan (Emperor), 26.
-- -- his ambitions, 43.
-- -- his Code, 43.
-- -- his greatness, 42, 69.
-- -- his sister, 68.


Eliot (Sir Charles), his _Turkey in Europe_, 36, 167.

England in the Adriatic, 104 _et seq._

Essad Pasha, at Scutari, 211.

Evans (Sir Arthur), 39, 176.

Exarchate, its beginning, 159.
-- and the Serbs, 168.

_Ex-King Nicholas of Montenegro and his Court_, 217, 270.


Fiume, _see_ Rieka.

Francis Ferdinand (Archduke), his murder, 212-3.
-- -- -- various mysteries, 214 _et seq._

Francis Joseph, 123, 133, 143, 162.

Frankopan (Christopher), 71.

Frederick Barbarossa, 37.

Friedjung (Prof.) and the forgeries, 205-6.


Gaj (Ljudevit), the patriot, 112 _et seq._, 119.

Gatalo (Danilo) exposes Nikita, 266.

Gauvain exposes Nikita, 269.

Gavrilović (Dr. Michael), 16, 98.

_Gazette de Lausanne_, quoted, 266.

George (Prince), his ways, 231-2.

Georgov (Prof.), 35.

German colonists, 82 _et seq._

Germans favoured by Habsburgs, 127-8, 143.
-- appraised by Haeckel, 243.

_Geschichte der Franzfelder Gemeinde_, 82.

Ghevgeli, a typical Macedonian town, 168 _et seq._

Giacich on Rieka, 122.

Giesl (Baron) and the Montenegrins, 209, 211-2.

Gladstone and Montenegro, 210.
-- his preface, 152.
-- and Strossmayer, 133.

Glagolitic, 29, 30, 63-4, 120.

Goad (H. E.), Comments on, 18-9.

Gopčević, his bad book, 178.

Gorica, 39, 127, 278.

Gortchakoff, his inspirations, 153, 177.
-- his instructions, 159.

Greek in Macedonian churches, 155 _et seq._, 218.
-- -- schools, 137 _et seq._ 169.

Gregory (Pope), quoted, 29.

Grimm (Jacob), his enthusiasm, 109.

Grün (Anastasius), the Slovene, 112.

Gundulić, his works, 65-6.


Habsburgs and the Croats (and _see_ Rieka), 69, 127.
-- and the Magyars, 119 _et seq._
-- and Montenegro (and _see_ Lovčen), 201-2, 209, 211-2.
-- and the Pragmatic Sanction, 78.
-- and the Serbian regiments, 82.
-- and the Serbs, 213.
-- and the Slovenes (and _see_ Triest), 127-8.

Hajduković, Nikita's Minister, 268.

Hajić (Dr.), against grammar, 109.

Hartwig, the Russian Minister, 214-5.

Hegedüs, the villain, 235 _et seq._

Heiduks, 59 _et seq._

Hektorović, the famous poet, 66.

Helen (Queen), 42.

Herbert (Hon. Aubrey, M.P.), considers the Magyars, 236.
-- -- considers the Magyars' neighbours, 192.

Herzegović (Achmet Pasha), 56.

Herzegovina, the dialect (and _see_ Bosnia), 65.

Hibben (Paxton), on Venizelos, 252.

Hodges (Colonel), 112.

Homer, on atrocities, 14.

Hoste (Commodore), 104, 105.

Hupka (Lieut.-Colonel) and Lovčen, 263.

Hussarek (Baron), his optimism, 297-8.

Hussein, the Dragon, 117.

Hvar, bombarded by Russians, 101.
-- in the Middle Ages, 50, 66.
-- revolts against Napoleon, 102.


Ignatieff (Count), and the Exarchate, 159.

Iorga (Prof.), his suggestion, 189, 190.

Irby (Miss), benefactress and traveller, 12, 152.
-- -- her _The Turks, the Greeks and the Slavons_, 152, 176.

Isonzo, important river (and _see_ Mazzini), 39, 102.

Istria in distress, 69, 70.
-- its population, 141-2.

Italianized party, 94, 108, 115.

Italians, their Austrian testimonials, 282 _et seq._
-- help the Serbs, 265.
-- Surrendering to, 281, 285 _et seq._

Italians, their union, 140 _et seq._
-- against Yugoslavia, 243, 245 _et seq._, 261, 282 _et seq._

Ivanović, the Russian, 126.


Jeglić (Prince-Bishop), 30, 298, 299.

Jellačić (J. J.), his decline, 125-6.
-- -- his expedition, 121.
-- -- Governor of Dalmatia, 123.
-- -- his proclamation, 119.

Jireček (Dr. C.), his _History of the Bulgars_, 33.
-- -- on the Morlaks, 54.

Jones (Fortier), his _With Serbia into Exile_, 258.

Jovius (Paulus), the historian, 56.

Julia (Princess), and Palmerston, 147.


Kačić, his long work, 66.

Kanchov (Basil) and the Macedonians, 168.

Kara George, his end, 110.
-- -- his first insurrection, 57, 81, 98.
-- -- his internal enemies, 107.

Karajić (Vuk), his great work, 61, 109, 113.

Karaveloff (Ljuba), his articles, 139, 154, 172.

Khuen-Héderváry (Count), 186, 188.

Kiepert (H.), the geographer, 23, 173.

Klobučarić, the police-captain, 257.

Kohler (Prof.), the jurist, 215, 217.

Kolomon (King), 40.

Kossovo, the great battle, 46, 47, 49.

Kossuth, 121 _et seq._, 125, 132, 200.

Kotča (Captain), 81.

Kotor, 7, 285 _et seq._

Kovačica, Magyar excesses at, 292-3.

Krk, 51.

Kronimirović, the chieftain, 31.

"Krpitsa," 162.

Kukuš, the strange movement, 155, 157, 159.


Ladislas, the traitor, 47.

Laffan (Rev. R. G. D.), his _The Guardians of the Gate_, 196.

Lajnšić (Dr. S.) and the rise of the Slovenes, 299, 300.

Lamartine, quoted, 57.

Landowners in Croatia, 128.
-- in Macedonia, 134 _et seq._

Language, Serbo-Croat (and _see_ Albanian and Bulgar), 112 _et seq._

Lansdowne (Lord) on Macedonia, 220.

Lazar (Prince), 45 _et seq._

Lazarević (Lazar), the militant priest, 101.

Leiper (R.) on Montenegro, 183.

Liubica (Princess), the strong-minded, 110.

Loiseau (C.), his _Le Balkan Slave_, 44, 66.

Lovčen, 126, 201, 262 _et seq._

Lucić, the lyric poet, 66.


Macedonia and the Allied advance, 239, 240.
-- examined, 43, 166 _et seq._
-- in old times, 33, 42.
-- under the Turks, 134 _et seq._, 137 _et seq._, 218 _et seq._

Machiedo (Dr.), what he read, 263.

Magyars, atrocities at Arad, 235 _et seq._
-- against Croats, 116, 119 _et seq._, 200-1.
-- measures in the War, 290 _et seq._
-- _see_ Kossuth and Rieka.

Maister (General), patriot and poet, 299, 300.

_Manchester Guardian_, quoted, 238.

Maravić, the good policeman, 257.

Maribor, 39.

Marko Kraljević, 44-5.

Marković (Dr. Lazar), his _Serbia and Europe_, 216.

Marković (Svetozar), 139.

Marmont (General), 102-3.

Martinović (General), friend of Russia, 202, 203.

Massarechi (Gregory), a missionary, 74.

Matthew Corvinus (King), 62.

Mazuranić, poet and ban, 114, 143.

Mazzini and the Isonzo, 102.

Meletios, the savage bishop, 156.

Methodus (Saint), 29.

Metternich, 39, 108, 119.

Michael (Prince) of Serbia, 12, 117, 145 _et seq._, 154.

Miklosić (F.), his _Monumenta Serbica_, 49.

Miladinoff (Dimitri), 132-3, 137-8.

Milan (Prince, afterwards King), his abdication, 194.
-- -- -- his aims, 175-6.
-- -- -- considered, 179 _et seq._

Miletić (Dr. Slavko) in the War, 291.

Miletić (Dr. Svetozar), against the Magyars, 191-2.

Millo (Admiral), 19.

Miloš (Prince), 110 _et seq._, 137.

Milovanović (Dr.) on Macedonia, 220.

Milutine (King), 42.

Mirko (Prince), the unregretted, 210, 264, 267.

Mišić (Marshal), commander-in-chief, 243, 290.
-- -- on officials in Macedonia, 221.

Miuškević, the Premier, 203, 264, 267.

M'Neill (Ronald, M.P.), champion of Nikita, 217, 276-7.

Momchiloff (Dr.), his pronouncement, 35.

_Montenegrin Bulletin_, 268-9.

Montenegrin Vespers, 75.

Montenegro, a disgrace, 230-1.
-- her purity, 36.
-- and the Turks, 134.
-- _see_ Nicholas, Peter I. and Peter II.

Morlaks, of Dalmatia, 39, 54-5, 91.

_Morning Post_, quoted, 183.

Morrison (Colonel) and Serbia's wounded, 244-5.

Mousset (A.), his _Le Progrès politique, etc._, 226.

Muhammedan ascendancy, 48, 73.

Muir Mackenzie (Miss), 12, 152-3.

Murko (Dr.), his _Die südslavischen Literaturen_, 65.

Musachi, the chronicler, 45.


Nally (Rev. Dr.) on the chivalrous Magyars, 238.

Napoleon and Dalmatia, 100 _et seq._
-- his fleet in the Adriatic, 104-5.
-- his Illyria, 102 _et seq._
-- and the Slovenes, 39, 91.

Nationality, unstable in those parts, 171.

Naumović (Risto), a Macedonian victim, 169.

_Near East_, quoted, 13.

Nekludoff, his _Diplomatic Reminiscences_, 194, 204.

Nemania (Stephen), 37-8, 41.

Nešić (Ljuba), his varied activities, 199, 200.

_Neue Freie Presse_, admits Austria's guilt, 217.

Newton (Lord and Lady), on the Magyars, 238.

Nicholas of Montenegro, his early fame, 145-6.
-- -- the secret clause, 147.
-- -- dealings with the Press, 204, 275.
-- -- the cloven hoof, 147-8, 181 _et seq._, 201 _et seq._,
        259, 273 _et seq._
-- -- works against the Serbs, 217, 234-5, 261 _et seq._

Nikita, _see_ Nicholas of Montenegro.

_Nineteenth Century and After_, quoted, 217, 238.

Nodier (Charles), the editor, 103.

Novi Bazar, and the Austrians, 192.

Novi Sad, 7, 118.


Obilic, the hero, 46.

Obradović, monk and Minister, 80-1.

Omladina, a society, 137, 145 _et seq._

_Omladinac_, their review, 136 _et seq._

Omortag, his inscription, 34.
-- his sons, 35.

Oraovac (Tomo), his grandfather, 185.
-- -- his _Red House_, 182-3.
-- -- his seventy-five questions, 269.


Padua University, its diplomas, 52.

Païssu, the monk, 80-1.

Paneff (Theodore), his ideas, 35, 36.

Paravia (P. A.), his judgment, 53.

Pašić (Nicholas), his exile, 180.
-- -- his methods, 180-1, 195, 254, 271.

Pasvantoölu (Osman Pasha), 57.

Pavlović (Count) and Austrian atrocities, 225-6.

Peć, 56, 61, 63, 72, 198, 199, 258-9.

Pešić (General) and Nikita, 234-5, 236.

_Pester Lloyd_, quoted, 35.

Peter I., the energetic bishop, of Montenegro, 99, 106.

Peter I. (King) of Serbia and Yugoslavia, his accession, 196.
-- -- -- his good work, 197, 202.
-- -- -- his old age, 232, 243-4, 259, 261.

Peter II., the great poet, of Montenegro, 123 _et seq._

Peter (Prince) of Lovčen, 263, 266.
-- -- -- the lover, 269, 270.

Pharos (Prof.), his _The Trial of the Authors of the Sarajevo Crime_, 215.

Pisani (Abbé), his _La Dalmatia_, 105.

Pius X. (Pope), and the liturgy, 30.

Podgorica Skupština, 275.

_Politika_, quoted, 11.

Pomaks, 60, 223.

Popoff (S.), his engaging monograph, 220-1.

Popov (Prof.), his _Obzor Chronografov_, 34.

Popović (Eugene), the aged Premier, 268.

Porphyrogenetos (Constantine), 31.

Potiorek (General) in Bosnia, 213.
-- -- in the War, 214, 239.

Pragmatic Sanction, and the Croats, 78.

Premrou (M.), his _Monimenta Sclavenica_, 27-8.

Preradović (Peter), poet and general, 113-4.

Prezzolini (G.), his arguments, 144-5.
-- -- his _La Dalmazia_, 66.

Pribram (Dr.), on eastern Roumelia, 193.

Pribičević (Svetozar), his zeal, 205.

Price (Crawfurd), his _Serbia's Part in the War_, 230.

Prizren, as it was, 73.

Propaganda, Albanian, 198.
-- Austrian, 272.
-- Bulgarian, 14, 15.
-- German, 299.
-- Italian, 277.
-- Serbian, 14, 15, 272, 277.
-- Roumanian, 167.

Putnik (Marshal), his end, 243, 259.


Rački (F.), the historian, 29, 133, 161.

Radeff (S.), his _La Macedoine_, 32.

Radić (S.) of Croatia, 187.

Radonić (Dr. Y.), Croat historian, 29.

Radoslavoff (Dr.) and the War, 248, 249.

Radovanović, and Michael's death, 147.

Radović (Andrija), 203, 264, 267-8.

Radulić and his son's nationality, 291-2.

Ragusa, _see_ Dubrovnik.

Rajacsich (Baron Joseph), 296-7.

Rajacsich (Patriarch), 119, 120.

Rajić (Blaško), the priest, 87.

Rakovski, 139, 149 _et seq._

Raška, 28, 30 _et seq._, 37.

Rauch (Baron), the drastic Ban, 162, 200-1.

_Resto del Carlino_, quoted, 247.

_Revue de Paris_, quoted, 269.

_Revue des Deux Mondes_, quoted, 260.

Rieka, 7, 42, 122.
-- "corpus separatum," 78, 115.
-- Magyar machinations, 161.

Rilski (Neophyte), 111.

Rizvanbegović (Ali Pasha), 117.

Romanzoff (Count), quoted, 16.

Roumanians in Banat, 58-9, 188 _et seq._
-- and the Serbian Church, 79.

Rukavina (General), 92.

Russia, her activities in the Balkans, 25, 153-4, 172 _et seq._
-- in the Adriatic, 99 _et seq._
-- and Macedonia, 220.
-- and Montenegro, 185.


Samo, an old Prince, 28, 38.

San Stefano, the unfortunate Treaty, 172 _et seq._

Sarajevo and the World War, 213 _et seq._, 234.
-- _see_ Čabrinović, Francis Ferdinand, Potiorek and Tankosić.

Sarpi (Fra Paolo), his warning, 52.

Sava (Saint), 17, 38, 41-2, 45.

Saxons in the Balkans, 24.

Sazonov, restrains Serbia, 252.

Schools, Croats' vain demand for, 115-6, 129, 163.
-- in Macedonia, 137-8, 169, 170, 178, 222-3.
-- in Montenegro, 185.
-- and the Pomaks, 60.

Schools in Serbia, 226.
-- Serbo-Croat, under Napoleon, 100.
-- Slovene, 127-8.

Scutari, 7, 208 _et seq._, 260, 266.

_Secolo_, on reception of Italians in Austria, 283.

Sekulić (Isidora), her _The Question_, 259.

Serbo-Croat Coalition, 200-1.
-- language (and _see_ Gaj and Karajić), 139, 140, 144.

Sesan (Ante), his enterprise, 285 _et seq._

Seton-Watson (Dr. R. W.), 162, 271, 272.
-- -- his _The Southern Slav Question_, 133, 205.

_Shade of the Balkans_, 59.

Shishmanoff (Prof.), 152, 166.

Šibenik, 30-1, 41, 51.

Simeon (Tzar), 32, 42.

Sinan Pasha, 56.

Sindjelinić, the hero, 107.

Sišić (F.), a writer, 29, 243.

Slava, a Serbian custom, 165.

Slovenia, suggested name, 26.

Slovenes free themselves, 298 _et seq._
-- their history, 25, 27-8, 38, 48, 91, 127-8.
-- their language, 13.

Šokci, of Baranja, 88.

Sokolović (Mehemet), 56, 61.

Sokolski, who decamped, 158.

Sonnino (Baron) and the Adriatic, 247-8.

_Spectator_, quoted, 246.

Split, 54.

Stability of Yugoslavia, 11, 223, 270.

Stamboulüsky, 11.

Starčević party, 186.

Steed (H. Wickham) and Corfu Declaration, 271, 272.

Stephen the Little, 93.

Stiljanović (Stephen), his corpse, 62.

Stojanović, his measures against Austria, 199.

Strossmayer, the great bishop, 114.
-- his origin, 132.
-- his work, 132 _et seq._, 138, 161, 162, 186 _et seq._

Stulli (J.), his _Vocabulario_, 103.

Südland (L. von), his _Die Südslavische Frage_, 213.

Susmel (Edoardo) of Rieka, 116, 122, 162 _et seq._


Tajsić (Ranko) answered by Pašić, 180.
-- -- his blunt demand, 179.

Tankosić and the Sarajevo crime, 216.

Tartaro-Bulgar, 34, 36.

Taylor (A. H. E.), his _The Future of the Southern Slavs_, 12-3.

Temešvar and the Serbs, 118.

Temperley (H. W. V.), his _History of Serbia_, 209.

Teodosijević (A.), his device, 226.

Thoreau, quoted, 17.

Thurn (Count Raymond von), 91-2, 108.

_Times_, quoted, 193, 229.

Tisza (Count) and the Great War, 213.

Tolerance among Yugoslavs, 37, 48, 129.

Tomassich (General), 106.

Tomić (Vladimir) and Nikita, 183.

Tomić (Yovan), the librarian, 73.

Tomislav (Prince), 31.

Tommaseo (Nicolo), 53, 142 _et seq._

Treaty of Berlin, 176.
-- of London, 245 _et seq._, 254.
-- of Pressburg, 100.
-- of San Stefano, 172 _et seq._
-- of Schoenbrunn, 102.
-- of Tilsit, 101.
-- between Milan and Austria, 193.

Trevelyan (G. M.), 246-7.

Triest, Slovene efforts at, 127, 141, 164.
-- against Venice, 47, 70.

Trogir, 31, 50.

Trumbić (Dr. Ante), 278, 288.

Turks and Dubrovnik, 67.
-- in Macedonia, 134 _et seq._, 178.
-- in Montenegro, 134, 145-6.
-- against Serbs, 62, 107, 110 _et seq._
-- in Yugoslavia, 55 _et seq._, 70.

Tvertko, the Ban, 45-6.

Tzankoff, 154, 155, 157.


Ulrich (Count), his funeral, 38.

Urach, its printing-press, 63.

Ušeničnik (Prof.), his deafness, 298.


Varady (F.), his _Baranja multja es jelenje_, 62.

Veglia, _see_ Krk.

Velimirović (Bishop), 17.

Venetians and Dalmatia, 40-1, 47, 50 _et seq._, 64.
-- and Dušan, 43.
-- their last stand, 39, 91.
-- their submission, 30, 31.

Vis, after the battle, 141.
-- and the British, 104-5.

Vlacić (Matthew), 63.

Voujošević (N.), the hero, 183.

Vukalović of Herzegovina, 148.

Vukotić (Yanko), denounces Nikita, 267.


Wallisch (Dr.) on Serbian schools, 226.

Waring (Miss), her _Serbia_, 29, 176.

Weigand (Gustav) and the Aromunes, 167.

Weisner (Baron), his report, 213.

Wendel (H.), his _Südosteuropäische Fragen_, 43.

Westlake (Prof.), his _International Law_, 245.

Wiles (J. W.), the translator, 114.


Xenia (Princess), the "femme fatale," 201-2, 268.


Yovanović (Ljuba), the idealist, 200.

Yugoslav Committee, 245, 271.

Yugoslavia, the word, 8, 26-7, 271.

Yugoslavs in America, 272-3.
-- in Russia, 281-2.


Zadar, 31, 40-1, 51 _et seq._, 66, 91, 106, 282.

Zagreb, Military Courts, 278, 279.
-- Trial, 205-6.
-- _see_ Croats.

Zara, _see_ Zadar.

Zeta, 31, 32, 37.

Ziliotto (Dr.) of Zadar, 261, 282.

Zmejanović (Bishop), 61.

Zoranić, of Zadar, 66.

Zrinsky (Peter), 71.


PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH




TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES

Obvious printer's errors have been fixed. See below for the more
detailed list.

The formatting of the project has been reproduced as true to the
original images as possible.


Fixed issues

p. 015—typo fixed, changed "commited" to "committed"
p. 070—inserted a missing period after "people"
p. 092—added a missing opening quote in front of "My dear Dalmatians"
p. 107—typo fixed, changed "the" to "them"
p. 111—typo fixed, changed a comma to a period after "would consent"
p. 143—typo fixed, changed "Goluchovski" to "Goluchowski"
p. 164—typo fixed, changed "Solvenes" to "Slovenes"
p. 165—inserted a missing — between "The riddle of Sarajevo"
       and "The miserable Macedonians"
p. 182—typo fixed, changed "probable" to "probably"
p. 190—typo fixed: changed "Bessd" to "Beesd"
p. 218—typo fixed: changed "policy-spy" to "police-spy"
p. 229—typo fixed: changed "Arbeiter Zeitung" to "Arbeiter-Zeitung"
p. 236—typo fixed: changed "nonagenaraians" to "nonagenarians"
p. 301—typo fixed: changed "Detruisez" to "Détruisez"
footnote 94—typo fixed: changed 'rijeć' to 'riječ'