But the German-Austrians in Carinthia, seeing how the Slovenes were
being treated by the Italians, could not resist attacking on their own
account; and here the most tragic feature was that in the German ranks
were many Germanized Slovenes. This had been the case at Maribor in
Styria, where the population rose against the 70 Slovene soldiers during
the visit of an American mission. Many of those who were afterwards
questioned were obliged to admit that they were of Slovene or of partly
Slovene origin, but Austria had taken care of their national
conscience. Had they been freely left to choose between the two
nationalities, and had they, out of admiration for the German, selected
that one--you would not endeavour now to make them Slovenes; but of
course these people were never given the choice, and therefore every
effort should be used to make to dance that portion of their blood which
is Slovene, and sometimes all your efforts will be fruitless. That those
who fought in Carinthia against the Slovene troops were of this origin
can be seen by the names of the officers of the so-called
"Volkswehralarmkompagnien" (_i.e._ the People's Emergency Defence
Companies). A document, marked W. No. 101, and signed by a Captain
Sandner, fell into Slovene hands on February 21. It gives very full
arrangements for these companies in Wolfsberg and the neighbourhood. At
St. Paul, for instance, men are to gather from three other regions, to
wit 40 from St. Paul itself, 120 from Granitzthal, 60 from Lagerbuch and
30 from Eitweg; the officers of this St. Paul contingent are called
Kronegger, Andrec, Kloetsch and Gritsch--the last three are of Slovene
origin. These Defence Companies consisted largely of ex-soldiers, under
the command, very often, of a schoolmaster or some such person; and if
they had done nothing more than to defend their own soil, one would have
less to say about them; but as a matter of fact they sent arms across to
their adherents in the territory occupied by the Slovenes. Thus at
Velikovec (Voelkermarkt) and Donji Dravograd (Unter-Drauburg) shots were
fired from houses which had been armed in this way. Incursions were made
into Yugoslav territory, where the people were urged to rise; and as
these Defence Companies did not wear any uniform their members could, if
captured, protest their innocence. The officers were given 20 crowns a
day, the men six crowns, with 5.44 a day for their keep during the time
of emergency, and four crowns daily in addition if they went outside the
garrison town. As it would not be possible to get the commissariat at
once into working order the men were asked to bring at least sufficient
bread with them for a few days. Most of the men had their own guns;
those who had not would be lent one at the village office on the
understanding that it was brought back there when the emergency was
over. These Defence Companies were joined in the spring by 2000 of the
proletariat of Vienna who, at the railway station before they started,
were cheered by speeches on the subject of plunder; at Graz they were
joined by some students who proposed to maintain order.... It was in
April that the Germans began nearly every day to fire on the Yugoslav
troops, regardless of the Americans, who said that any infringement of
the Armistice would be severely punished. The Slovene bridgehead around
Velikovec was, towards the end of April, bombarded for several days with
heavy artillery, and the local commander, on his own initiative, crossed
the Armistice line in order to seize this artillery; he did, in fact,
carry off some twenty pieces, with which he returned to his old
positions. This caused the Germans to send through Zurich most indignant
telegrams to the Entente Press, denouncing the Yugoslavs for having
flagrantly crossed the Armistice line by 10 kilometres (cf. _Le
Journal_, for example, of May 5). In the same report they were held up
as villains for having crossed the river Drave at several points and cut
the railway line; as a matter of fact their infantry was at least 11
kilometres to the south of the Drave, and the artillery, of course,
still farther off. This railway line, which was the means of
communication between Austrians and Italians, was the subject of very
fierce talk on the part of the latter. All this time, be it remembered,
the Slovenes had feeble forces; and their own officers do not pretend
that they approach the Serbs as combatants. After centuries of
servitude--a more insidious servitude than if their masters had been
Moslem--they have now awakened to devote themselves, and with great
success, to agriculture and industry. Nevertheless the old fighting
spirit of the Slav has not been quite extinguished in them. Their
opponents on May 2 made a big attack upon Celovec (Klagenfurt) and
Beljak (Villach), where they had at their disposal the munitions of the
entire 10th Austrian army. Several battalions had come down from Vienna,
as well as 340 unemployed Austrian ex-officers, who were clothed as
infantry privates. These officers were serving for the love of their
country--up to May 1 at all events they were in receipt of no pay. The
Slovene ranks were somewhat depleted by Bol[vs]evik tracts, telling
them to go home, as there would be no more war; and yet at Gutenstein
sixty men with three machine guns, under Lieut. Maglaj, a Slovene from
Carinthia, kept 1500 men at bay from 9 a.m. till 3.30, after which they
slowly withdrew until the fighting ceased at six; a corporal and two men
of a machine-gun detachment were cut off and concealed themselves in the
shrubs of a defile. Suddenly they heard a German company come down the
road, singing as they marched. The three men opened fire--the Germans in
perplexity stood still and then retired in disorder. The whole
German-Austrian movement was checked by General Maister. And when the
Serbian veterans, men of all ages, with uniforms of every shade, marched
through the streets of Maribor, it was felt that there need be no more
anxiety as to that particular frontier of Yugoslavia.