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. Mili[vc]evi['c], 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 21/2 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. Vesni['c],
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 _Na[vs]a 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. Pa[vs]i['c] 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 Brki['c] of Pe['c],
who wrote in the eighteenth century concerning some of the Turkish
provinces. No one would pretend that Brki['c] 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.