Farther down the coast and on the islands the Italians seemed, with few
exceptions, to have relinquished every effort to make themselves popular
with the Slavs. Of course one naturally hears more of the cases of
tension than of those where friendliness prevails; but in the towns or
villages where the Slav _intelligentsia_ appreciated that an officer was
doing his best, they were obliged invariably to add that he was doing it
in spite of his men, and that his control of these men was more or less
defective. Numbers of the soldiers, marines and carabinieri may have
been animated, when they landed in Dalmatia, with excellent intentions,
but their months amid an alien population had produced in them too often
a deplorable effect. It must be taken into account that many of them had
an almost insurmountable desire to be demobilized. At Gradi[vs]ca, where
many Slovenes were interned, with fences round them but with no roof
other than the sky, their guards with other soldiers had risen in
revolt. This outbreak was suppressed, certain soldiers--some say sixty,
but the number is doubtful--being shot; and all the others took an oath
that on the first occasion of a deserter being shot at, they would, down
to the last man, leave the barracks. This movement had been growing
since the withdrawal of Bissolati from the Cabinet. As for the young
officers, they had been exhorted, in a communication from Admiral Millo,
the Governor, that they must realize the position they were in. The
Admiral's memorial, which was marked with wisdom but also with a
too-sweeping air of superiority, was labelled "Secret Document: No. 558
of Register P. Section of Propaganda. Sebenico, March 21, 1919." A copy
was found by the Yugoslavs under an officer's mattress, was transcribed
and replaced. Since it made admissions with regard to the Croats the
contents were telegraphed to Paris. It is a lengthy and to us at times a
rather rhetorical expose, of which it will suffice to make some
extracts. "The Officer," says Admiral Millo, "should place himself in a
calm and dignified fashion outside and above the disputes which divide
the sentiments of the local population. And in accounting,
psychologically and historically, for the detestations and the
aspirations of either party, he must regard the situation with the
serene mind of a judge.... The position of officers is extremely
delicate, more particularly in the small centres. It is known that
outside the towns the population in its great majority and often its
totality consists of Yugo-Slavs or Slavs of the South, that is to say,
Croats or Serbo-Croats. It is a people of another race, of that
formidable Slav race which for centuries has been pressing against the
West, athirst for liberty and eager for the sea; a people with a
psychology, a mentality, a civilization, habits, traditions, a national
consciousness and a quite special individuality. This population is
fundamentally good, good as simple and primitive people are. But the
simple and primitive peoples are also extremely sensitive and suspicious
and violent in their impulses.... May Heaven preserve the officers from
not taking these things into account and from letting themselves be
guided solely by their Italian feelings.... Firm nerves, sangfroid and
an evenly-balanced mind are required in order to prevent the hostility
of the population from causing, as a reaction, resentment and a spirit
of revolt, of vengeance and of oppression on our part. The officer must
... become an element of moderation and pacification, with the object of
assuaging and obviating the bitter feelings which have been created and
fed by a past that is and must be wiped out for ever; and of dissipating
that hostility which, determined by a political situation and events,
has been and is being incited and strengthened by blind passions and an
artificially created campaign of interested parties (_da artificiose
interessate campagna_).... It must be remembered that this is the first
contact (_il primo contatto_) which the population, as yet primitive and
uncultured in its mass, has had with Italy, where it instinctively sees
the enemy and the new oppressor. We must do our best to make them see
in Italy their friend and liberator.... It is evident and it leaps to
the eyes of all how delicate and important is the moment of this first
contact. Nothing more than a superficial knowledge of the circumstances
is needed for the officer to understand that in all his official and
personal acts he must behave in such a manner that the population, which
is primitive and simple and therefore all the more susceptible to
suggestions, should regain the impression that Italy is a great country,
the country of liberty and right, that its people is educated and
civilized, that its officers and soldiers are here to fulfil a work of
civilization and education, of love, in a country which must be Italian
on account of historic rights and for the exigencies of Italy's defence:
in which the Slavs, who have been introduced by the course of events and
as an effect of the expansive potentiality of their race and the
artifices of those who dominated the country, will find in the
independence and development of their nationality a great fatherland
which is civilized, powerful, humane and free.... In estimating the
enmity of the Croats the fact must be taken into account that the
Croatian world, I mean to say the Croat people, with its action in the
interior of Austria while the Italian army was acting outside,
resolutely and victoriously, has co-operated in precipitating the
downfall of Austria and in freeing itself from a detested regime;
particularly in the last year of the War this sentiment of nationality
became accentuated with the fervent aspiration for liberty.... These are
the circumstances which have determined a special psychology composed of
joy and ecstasy--both elements which, in minds that are laden with all
the influences of the East, produce a facile and dangerous excitement.
On the other hand there survives in the Italian population the hatred
against the Croatian supremacy, a hatred which is comprehensible but
which in time must give place to other sentiments, rendering possible a
fair coexistence of the two populations, whose aim should be common--the
prosperity and development of Dalmatia, in the prosperity and for the
prosperity, in the greatness and for the greatness of Italy. From this
picture it must be instantly clear to every officer that his duty here
is ... a truly lofty mission of civilization.... Especially the officer
who is in charge of administrative work must awaken impressions that
are naturally caused by the sense of justice for all; his severity must
be good and his goodness must be severe, and from every act there must
transpire the dignity which comes from the might and right of Italy, the
kindness and generosity which come from the virtue of the race.... There
is already an impression on the part of the Croats that the Italians are
good, that Italy is strong. There must also be born and reinforced the
other conviction that we are not oppressors but liberators.... The best
propaganda, the most efficacious, because spontaneous and unexpected, is
done by the officer and his men. The Italian officer ... with the
harmony of manners which distinguishes him, obtains very easily the
sympathies of this population, a sympathy, however, which for an
optimist may become dangerous. Young officers must not forget that the
propagators of the great Yugoslavia still exercise with their
megalomania a potent influence over the primitive population and that a
gesture of theirs, a word, an attitude, may even yet indirectly favour
the Croat cause and make difficulties for us in exhibiting our mission
of civilization."