At Starigrad on Hvar the Italians also said that they were
representatives of the Entente, but soon they prohibited the national
colours. Being perhaps aware that in the whole island, with its
population of about 20,000, there were before the War only four or five
Italians who were engaged in selling fruit, their countrymen in November
1918 did their best, by the distribution of other commodities--rice,
flour and macaroni--to make some more Italians. They succeeded at
Starigrad in obtaining fifteen or twenty recruits. And they made it
obvious that it would be more comfortable to be an Italian than a
Yugoslav. The local Reading-Rooms, whose committee had received no
previous warning, fell so greatly under the displeasure of the Italians
that one night after ten o'clock--at which time curfew sounded for the
Yugoslavs; the Italians and their friends could stay out until any
hour--the premises were sacked: knives were used against the pictures,
furniture was taken by assault, and mirrors did not long resist the
fine elan of the attacking party. Old vases, other ornaments and books
were thrown into the harbour near the _Sirio_, the Italian destroyer
which was anchored ten yards from the Reading-Rooms. Of course there was
an inquiry; the result of it was that several Yugoslavs (and no others)
were imprisoned. The _Sirio's_ commander was a gentleman of some
activity; he sent a telegram to Rome and another one to Admiral Millo,
the Italian Governor of the occupied parts of Dalmatia, saying that the
people of the island longed for annexation. These telegrams he read
aloud before the islanders, with all his carabinieri in attendance....
The old-world capital of the island, which is a smaller place than
Starigrad, was occupied on the same day. The first serious encounter
took place on December 4, when the Italians, who were quartered on the
upper floor of the Sokol or gymnastic club, observed that furniture was
being taken from the rooms below them and was being carried out into the
street. If they had asked the people what they were about they would
have heard that these things had been stored in the gymnasium during the
War and that the place was now to be devoted to its original purpose.
What they did was to believe at once the yarn of a renegade, who told
them that the people were preparing to blow up the house. The Italians
opened fire, wounded several persons and killed one of their own
carabinieri.