To grasp the conditions at Split we must go back to the years just
before the War. From the reports of the Austrian Intelligence Officer,
Captain Bukvich, we shall see what was the attitude of the Slavs and the
Italianists respectively towards the Government, and hence towards each
other. It may be that the very loyal, some would call it cringing,
attitude of the Italianists was forced upon them by the great
inferiority of their numbers. What they were aiming at, with very few
exceptions, were the benefits of the moment, rather than those others of
which here and there an isolated Italianist would dream, when between
the smoke of his cigarette he saw the Italian tricolour flying over
Dalmatia. If this lonely dreamer had gone to Italy before the War with
the purpose of awakening in people an interest in what some day might
happen, he would have found that most of the Italians had never heard of
Dalmatia. But among those who had heard were the officials of the "Liga
Nazionale," which assisted the Dalmatian Italians to support those
famous schools. In a report (Information No. 668) which Padouch, the
successor of Bukvich as Intelligence Officer, sent from Split on
September 25, 1915, to the Headquarters at Mostar, we are told that "an
Italian of this place, with whom I confidentially spoke on the subject
before the outbreak of the War, openly and candidly told me that in
their Liga school one-third of the children, at the most, have parents
whose nationality has always been Italian. The others are children of
the people, of that class which on account of its humble social position
has lost its national consciousness. He told me that the parents
received subsidies and the children clothes, school-books, etc.,
gratuitously."
The reports of Captain Bukvich were sent to his superiors at Mostar. No
doubt a great many documents were destroyed just before the Austrian
collapse, as the Government had ordered to be done--three boxes,
presumably containing copies, are known to have been committed to the
flames at Split, while at Zadar there was a wholesale destruction on
October 31. Yet a fair number of interesting papers survived,
principally at Mostar, Castelnuovo, Metkovi['c] and Dubrovnik. In 1913
Captain Bukvich sent many reports to the effect that Split was
completely anti-Austrian and that the Italian party were the only loyal
people. On September 16 he said that the inhabitants believe in the
coming of a great Serbia, and he substantiates this with numerous
instances. "The students over thirteen years of age," he says, "are all
Serbophil, and most of the masters, professors and State clerks.... The
chief paper in Split is Serbophil and has been confiscated twenty-seven
times between October 1912 and September 1913." He reported on August
19, 1913 (Information No. 211), to the General Staff of the Imperial and
Royal 16th Corps at Dubrovnik with reference to the Francis Joseph
celebrations of the previous day: "... only the public buildings and a
few other houses were beflagged. One must notice the satisfactory
conduct and the finely decorated houses of the autonomous Italian
party." On February 27, 1914 (Information No. 62), he narrates that a
big dinner was given at the bishop's palace to celebrate the centenary
of the incorporation of Dalmatia into the Habsburg monarchy; all the
chief citizens were invited to this dinner, but the Croat deputies, Dr.
Trumbi['c], Dr. Smodlaka and other Croats declined with thanks. Dr.
Salvi, however, of the autonomous Italian party, put in an appearance.
On July 31 (Information No. 267) he refers to the mobilized men who
marched through the town and were put on board ship. "The attitude," he
says, "of the Slav _intelligentsia_ was quite passive. The Italian band
waited for the troops, a procession was improvised, great ovations took
place, and enthusiasm was shown by the Autonomous party, who called:
'Hoch Austria! Hoch the Emperor! Hoch the War! Down with Serbia! Down
with the Serbian municipality!'" A certain Demeter, an Austrian naval
lieutenant, was a spectator of these scenes. He made some notes for the
typist, afterwards embodied in a report to the Military Command at
Mostar and marked "Secret No. 147." He relates, with unconcealed fury,
how the Slavs not merely displayed no raptures when the War proclamation
was read, but walked away in the midst of the recital and refrained from
following the band, which later on paraded the town. Only the Italians,
he said, exhibited the proper feeling. They did more than that; for with
the same date, July 31, one finds an interesting letter from the
"Societa del Tiro al Bersaglio" of Split, which called itself a shooting
club, but was not in possession of arms; it was, as a matter of fact, a
gymnastic society with a political object. The secretary, Luigi Puisina,
wrote on the 31st to the authorities, to say that they had determined to
offer themselves in uniform for any service of a military nature ("per
quei qualsiasi servizi di carattere militare"). Bukvich reported on
August 3 (Information No. 268) that for the present these gymnasts will
be used as special constables, and he adds, to one's astonishment, that
this has caused the Slav _intelligentsia_ to be still more profoundly
depressed. Nothing could elude the eagle eye of Bukvich: on December 17,
1914, he noted that the small boys in the streets were winking and
smiling at each other in consequence of the news that the Austrians had
been driven out of Belgrade.
When Italy entered the War a handful of Dalmatian Italians--I believe
six from Zadar and two from Split--went to serve in the Italian army.
Five others, four of them from Zadar, were interned at Graz; with these
exceptions the Italians and Italianists were very much more faithful to
the Austrian Empire than were the Croats, hundreds of whom were hanged
or shot or lodged in fortresses. The Italians, however, persist in
charging the Croats with unbounded fidelity; in fact, it is one of their
most powerful arguments. They themselves in Split continued to do what
the Austrians expected of them: those who were of military age became
units of the army, while the rest of them, with one exception, were not
incommoded. The President of their club, the "Cabinetto di Lettura,"
that Dr. Salvi of whom we have heard, was not only most assiduous in
addressing letters of devotion and fidelity to the Emperor, in promoting
all kinds of patriotic Austrian manifestations, but as the particular
friend of Mr. Tszilvas, the Austrian sub-prefect, he was wont to go down
with him to the harbour and watch the embarkation, in chains, of the
Slav _intelligentsia_. The only Italian who suffered this fate was a Mr.
Tocigl, with whom Dr. Salvi had had a personal difference.