The Podgorica Skup[vs]tina was not elected by these troops. No one will
pretend that in the excitement of those days the voting was conducted in
a calm and methodical fashion. Here and there a dead man was elected;
the proceedings--though they were not faked, as in Nikita's time--were
rough-and-ready. But if the deputies had been selected in a more
haphazard fashion, say according to the first letter of their surnames,
the result would have been identical--they would, with a crushing
majority, have deposed their King and voted for the merging of their
country in the rest of Yugoslavia. If the former Skup[vs]tina had been
convoked, as some people advocated--it would have most effectively
nonplussed the pro-Nikita party here and elsewhere (it might even have
silenced Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., who asserted[28] that this "packed
assembly" consisted of "Serbian subjects and bought agents in about
equal numbers")--but then two-fifths of the country--those territories
acquired in the Balkan War--would not have been represented. Observe,
however, that the Skup[vs]tina in Nikita's time was for union with
Serbia. Even then--although of the 76 deputies the king nominated 14,
while the other 62, of course, were people whom he pretty well approved
of--even then they had passed resolutions in favour of an economic
union, a common army and common representatives abroad. The Podgorica
Parliament had 168 members, of whom 42 were from the new areas. The
Constitution did not provide for such an assembly; but Nikita's friends
who clamoured for the Constitution evidently had forgotten that under
Articles 2 and 16 a king who deserts his country and people is declared
to have forfeited his legal rights. Those foolish partisans who cried
that it was monstrous not to wait until all the interned Montenegrins
had come back from Austria and Hungary, may be reminded of Nikita's Red
Cross parcels which these prisoners had refused to take. Moreover,
certain of them were elected, after their arrival, as vacancies
occurred, and they were also represented among the dozen deputies whom
the Skup[vs]tina chose for the Belgrade Parliament. No disorders
happened during the elections, the best available men were chosen--76 of
them having enjoyed a university education. It is worthy of remark that
while 20 of the Podgorica deputies had sat in Nikita's former
parliaments, another 150 of these ex-deputies survive, and yet out of
the total number of past and present deputies (_i.e._ over 300), only 15
declared for a kind of autonomy, but were in favour of Yugoslav union.
The Metropolitan of Cetinje, the Bishops and five of the six pre-war
Premiers gave their unreserved support to the new regime. With them was
the Queen's brother, the Voivoda Stephen Vukoti['c], a grand-looking
personage who has remained all his life a poor man; he was questioned by
General Franchet d'Esperey as to whether he had also voted against his
brother-in-law. "If I had seven heads and on each of them a crown,"
answered the Voivoda, "I would give them all for the union of the
Southern Slavs." ... Where was the opposition to Yugoslavia? "The Black
Mountain," said Nikita at Neuilly--"the Black Mountain, as well as her
national King, has always pursued the same path, the only one leading to
the realization of our sacred ideal--that of National Unity." One might
object that a national King should really not have written to his
daughter Xenia on October 19, 1918, that he would propose a republic for
all the Serbs and Yugoslavs, with the abdication of the two kings and
the two dynasties. He added that the Serbs were not ripe for a republic,
but that in advanced circles his suggestion would be enthusiastically
received, and in a short time he would reap the benefit. "That," he
wrote, "is my impression--it may be that I am wrong--but I do not know
what else I can do." And a truly national King--but the world, as
Sophocles remarked, is full of wonders, and nothing is more wonderful
than man--a truly national King should not have supported those twenty
Montenegrins who in the summer of 1919 assembled at the monastery of
De[vc]ani with the design of establishing a Bol[vs]evik republic. Before
the Yugoslav troops could reach the spot these men were surrounded by
Albanians and overpowered, so that another wild dream of the old
intriguer was dissipated.... When Mr. Leiper, the _Morning Post's_ acute
representative, was in Montenegro during the summer of 1920 he found
only one person in three weeks who pined for the return of Nikita.
"Presently," he says, "we were accosted by an ancient, wild-looking
'pope,' with a face rugged and stormy as the crags among which he lived,
and long, straggling hair tied in behind by an old leather boot-lace....
The talk turned to politics. My friend wailed over times and morals.
Food was scarce, the wicked flourished like green bay trees, honest
folks were oppressed, starved, neglected; for example, his own self that
sat before me--would I believe it?--after forty years' service he had
not so much as attained the dignity of Archimandrate.... They were a
rascal lot, those at present in power, ripe for hanging, every man-jack
of them. And oh for the days of good King Nicholas, who would have given
them short shrift!" Mr. Leiper subsequently learned that Nikita's
panegyrist had spent his life in the wilds of Macedonia, where he acted
as agent and decoy of the then Montenegrin Government. One murder, at
least, for which he received a good sum of money, could be laid to his
charge. Now he was living in retirement, hoping no doubt for better
days, and meanwhile winked at by the tolerant authorities.
After the assembling of the Podgorica Parliament a proclamation was
issued by the joyous Montenegrins at Cetinje. "Montenegrins!" it began,
"the great and bloody fight of the most terrible world war is over!
Despotism has been smothered, freedom has come, right has triumphed....
Montenegrin arms and the heroic deeds of our Homeland have distinguished
themselves for centuries. The fruits of these great deeds and colossal
sacrifices our people must realize in a great and happy Yugoslavia....
Let us reject all attempts which may be made to deprive us of our happy
future and put us in a position of blind and miserable isolation
henceforth to work and weep in sorrow.... Before us lie two paths. One
is strewn with the flowers of a blessed future, the other is covered
with dangerous and impenetrable brambles." If any disinterested and
intelligent foreigner, say a Chinaman, had been asked whether he thought
that it was more to the advantage of Montenegro that she, like Croatia,
Bosnia and the rest, should merge herself in the Yugoslav State or
whether he considered that the sort of federation which the ex-King had
suggested would assist more efficaciously the welfare--social,
economical and national--of the Montenegrin, he would not have thanked
you for asking so superfluous a question.... Nikita then asserted that
those terrible Serbian bayonets had caused the Podgorica Skup[vs]tina to
vote as it did. Anyone who has spoken to one of those Bocchesi or
Dalmatian volunteers who were at that time in Montenegro will quite
believe that they applauded the result, but to pretend that they drove
the Skup[vs]tina with bayonets to do what every reasoning creature would
have done is so farcical that one might have thought it would not even
form (as it did form) the subject for questions in the British House of
Commons.... The only part played by bayonets was when on November 7 (one
day previous to that fixed for the elections) a detachment of the
Italian army landed at Antivari and another marched to within about six
kilometres of Cetinje, where they were met by the Montenegrin National
Guard, were told that bigger forces, which it was difficult to restrain,
would shortly arrive and were given one hour in which to depart. Of this
they availed themselves, announcing that they were all Republicans. They
left behind them an elderly man who was sick and requested the
Montenegrins not to murder him. The Italians and Nikita's friends soon
afterwards spread a report of horrible murders in Montenegro. Certain
Allied officers went up to investigate the matter and found that the
charges were baseless. They were told by Mr. Gloma[vz]ic, the prefect of
Cetinje, that the Allies, apart from the Italians, could go anywhere in
Montenegro, but that the Italians would be opposed by force of arms and
that if the Allies came up together with the Italians, then they too
would be attacked. Thereupon the Allied officers invited Mr. Gloma[vz]ic
to lunch.