On the afternoon of that same day, October 26th, when the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, with its army and navy, was collapsing, Admiral
Horthy, an energetic, honest, if not brilliant Magyar, the Commander of
the Fleet at Pola, called to his flag-ship, the _Viribus Unitis_, one
officer representing each nationality of the Empire. Koch was there on
behalf of the Slovenes. The Admiral announced that a wholesale mutiny
had been planned for November 1st, during which the ships' treasuries
would be robbed, and he asked these officers to collaborate with him in
preventing it. Koch, at the Admiral's request, wrote out a speech that
he would deliver to the Slovenes, and this document, with one or two
notes in the Admiral's writing, is in Koch's possession. "If you will
not listen to your Admirals, then," so ran the speech, "you should
listen to our national leaders." He addressed himself to the men, of
course in the Slovene language, as a fellow-countryman. He begged them
to keep quiet. He deprecated all plundering, firstly in order that their
good name should not be sullied, and also pointing out that the
neighbouring population was overwhelmingly Slovene. Out of 45,000 men
only 2000 could leave by rail; he therefore asked them all to stay
peacefully at Pola. Meanwhile the local committee had been formed; Koch
was, secretly, a member of it, and on the 28th, Rear-Admiral Cicoli, a
kindly old gentleman who was port-commandant, advised Koch to join it as
liaison-officer. It was on the 28th at eight in the morning that the
officers who had been selected to calm the different nationalities
started to go round the fleet. That officer who spoke to the Germans
declared that one must not abandon hopes of victory, and that anyhow the
War would soon be over. Count Thun, who discoursed to the Czechs, was
ill-advised enough to make the Deity, their Kaiser and their oath the
main subjects of his remarks, so that he was more than once in great
danger of being thrown overboard. Koch went first of all to the _Viribus
Unitis_, but the mutiny had begun; a bugle was sounded for a general
assembly; it was ignored, and the crew let it be known that they were
weary of the old game, which consisted of the officers egging on one
nation against another. This mutiny had not yet spread to the remaining
ships, and on them the speeches were delivered. At the National Assembly
that evening Koch was chosen as chief of National Defence; he thereupon
went to Cicoli and formally asked to be allowed to join the committee.
When Vienna refused its assent, Koch resigned his commission. By this
time all discipline had gone by the board, no one thought of such a
thing as office work and, amid the chaos, sailors' councils appeared,
with which Koch had to treat. The situation was made no easier by the
presence of large numbers of Germans, Magyars and Italians, of whom the
latter also formed a National Council. On the 30th, Koch, as chief of
National Defence, asked Admirals Cicoli and Horthy to come at 9 p.m. to
the Admiralty, with a view to the transference of the military power. At
7.30, in the municipal building, there was a joint meeting of the
Yugoslav and the Italian National Councils, and so many speeches were
made that the Admirals had to be asked to postpone their appearance for
two hours; and at eleven o'clock, with the street well guarded against a
possible outbreak on the part of any loyal troops, the whole Yugoslav
committee, accompanied by one member of the Italian committee, went to
the Admiralty. Horthy had gone home, but Cicoli and his whole staff were
waiting. The old gentleman was informed that he no longer had any power
in his hands; he was asked to give up his post to Koch, and this he was
prepared to do. "It is not so hard for me now," he said, "as I have
meanwhile received a telegram from His Majesty, ordering me," and at
this point he produced the paper, "to give up Pola to the Yugoslavs."
The affair had apparently been settled between nine and eleven o'clock.
Cicoli was ready to sign the protocol, but out of courtesy to a
chivalrous old man this was left undone; after all there were witnesses
enough.
During the night of October 30th-31st, a radiogram, destined for President
Wilson, was composed. "Together with the Czechs, the Slovaks and the Poles,
and in understanding," it said, "with the Italians, we have taken over the
fleet and Pola, the war-harbour, and the forts." It asked for the dispatch
of representatives of such Entente States as were disinterested in the
local national question. But now a telegram was received from Zagreb,
announcing that Dr. Ante Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c], of the chief National
Council, would be at Pola at 8 a.m. and that, pending his arrival, no
wireless was to be sent out. Dr. Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c],[3] poet and
deputy for the lower Dalmatian islands, had always been, in spite of his
indifferent health, one of the most strenuous fighters for Yugoslavia. Two
years of the War he spent in an Austrian prison, but on his release he
managed to travel up and down Croatia and Dalmatia, inciting the Yugoslav
sailors to revolt; many of them had already read a speech by this
silver-tongued deputy in the Reichsrath, a speech of which the reading and
circulation had been forbidden as a crime of high treason. About 9 a.m. of
the 31st there was a meeting, on board the _Viribus Unitis_, between
Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c] and Koch. There was a brief ceremony, the leader of
the Sailors' Council handing over the vessel to the deputy, as representing
the National Council of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Admiral Horthy, in his
cabin, likewise drew up a _proces-verbal_ to the same effect, saying that
he was authorized to do this by the Emperor, and he supported his statement
by the production of a wireless message. Koch urged on the doctor the
necessity of sending the above-mentioned wireless to Wilson. "The news of
this great event," says Tresi['c]-Pavi[vc]i['c] in an article in the
_Balkan Review_ (May 1919), "was dispatched to all the Powers by wireless."
But unfortunately he seems, whether on his own responsibility or that of
Zagreb, to have prevented Koch from sending it on that day. Captain Janko
de Vukovi['c] Podkapelski was then placed in command of the fleet, though
the Sailors' Council at first declined to accept him. He was at heart a
patriot, but had taken no active part in Yugoslav propaganda and, unluckily
for himself, he had been compelled to accompany Count Tisza in his recent
ill-starred tour of Bosnia, when the Magyar leader made a last attempt to
browbeat the local Slavs. Yet, as no other high officer was available, Koch
told the Sailors' Council that they simply must acknowledge Vukovi['c], and
at 4 p.m. he took over the command, the Yugoslav flag being hoisted on all
the vessels simultaneously, to the accompaniment of the Croatian national
anthem and the firing of salutes.