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 Maravi['c], the chief
of this branch of the police, and of von Klobu[vc]ari['c], 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 Klobu[vc]ari['c] 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 "Majestaetsbeleidigung" 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 cafes
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.