They landed on the same day, November 3, on the beautiful and prosperous
island of Kor[vc]ula (Curzola), putting ashore at Velaluka, the western
harbour. With the exception of five families, all the people are
Yugoslavs; and the Italians, who sailed in under a white flag, announced
that they had come as friends of the Yugoslavs and of the Entente, to
preserve order and to protect them against submarines. On the 5th, they
went to the town of Kor[vc]ula, where one of the two officers,
Lieutenant Poggi, of the navy, put his assurances in writing, as he had
done at Velaluka. He protested against the word "Occupation." On the 7th
they returned to Velaluka and on the 12th went back, with about a
hundred men, to Kor[vc]ula. Once more he wrote that he had not come to
occupy the island; he added, though, that the district officials should
act on the opposite peninsula of Sabioncello in the name of the
Yugoslavs, but over Kor[vc]ula and the island of Lastovo (Lagosta) in
the name of Italy--not of the Entente. He wanted to remove the Yugoslav
flags from public buildings and substitute Italian flags. When he was
reminded of what he had said with regard to the Entente, he exclaimed:
"No, no! This is Italy!" The chief district official protested, and
refused to carry out Lieut. Poggi's injunctions, nor were the Italians
able to do so. This officer remained at Kor[vc]ula, requisitioning
houses and hoisting as many Italian flags as he could. He issued an
order that after 6.30 p.m. not more than three persons were allowed to
come together in the streets. His men used to offer food to the women of
the place, who declined it; after which the food was given to the
children, who were previously photographed in an imploring attitude.
There was some trouble on December 15 when the _Leonidas_, an American
ship, came in with a number of mine-sweepers. Apparently the Yugoslavs
contravened the Italian regulations by omitting to ask whether their
band might play in the harbour, but, on the supposition that this would
not be accorded to them, went down to the harbour just as if they were
not living under regulations. They waved American, Serbian and Croatian
flags, all of which the Italians attempted to seize; the most gorgeous
one, a Yugoslav flag of silk with gilt fringes, they tore up and divided
among themselves as a trophy. When the _Leonidas_ made fast, a
lieutenant leaped ashore and placed himself, holding a revolver, in
front of an American flag. The captain, according to some reports, had
his men standing to their guns, while others of the crew are said to
have been given hand-grenades; but whether by this method or another,
the turbulence on shore was calmed and the Italians seem to have invited
the captain to step off his boat. He preferred, however, to go to
another port; the populace came overland. One need not say that there
was jollification.... When the other American boats departed, a small
one remained at Kor[vc]ula. One day a steamer came from Metkovi['c],
having on board a few men of the Yugoslav Legion. The people of
Kor[vc]ula, not being allowed to take the men to their houses, came down
quietly to the harbour with coffee and bread, but the carabinieri drove
them away. These legionaries were emigrants to Australia and Canada, who
had come back to fight for the Entente, including Italy. The Italians
wanted to arrest them all on account of a small Croatian flag which one
of them was holding, but at the request of the American ship they
refrained. A certain Marko [vS]imunovi['c], who had gone to Australia
from the Kor[vc]ula village of Ra[vc]i[vs]ca, went over to speak to the
sailors on the American boat. Because of this the carabinieri took him
to the military headquarters. He was interned for several months in
Italy.
The long island of Hvar (Lesina) was not occupied until November 13. It
is interesting, by the by, to note how this island came to have its
names. In the time of the Greek colonists it was known as [Greek: ho
pharos], which subsequently became Farra or Quarra, leading to the name
Hvar, by which it is known to the Slavs. They also, in the thirteenth
century, gave it an alternative name: Lesna, from the Slav word
signifying "wooded," for the Venetians had not yet despoiled the island
of many of its forests. Lesna was the popular and Hvar the literary
name; and the Italians, taking the former of these, coined the word
Lesina, the sound of which makes many of them and of other people think
that this is an Italian island.[10] The question of Slav and Italian
geographical names in Dalmatia has been carefully investigated by a
student at Split. Taking the zone which was made over to the Italians by
the Treaty of London, he found that with the exception of a reef called
Maon, alongside the island of Pago, every island, village, mountain and
river has a Slav name, whereas out of the total of 114 names there were
64 which have no names in Italian; and this is giving the Italians
credit for such words as Sebenico, Zemonico and so forth, which in the
opinion of philologists are merely modifications of the original
[vS]ibenik, Zemunik, etc.