But in many parts of Dalmatia and the islands the Italians had no fear
of such a Commission. Let us see what they had been doing in the
neighbourhood of Zadar, the old capital. Apart from the usual
prohibitions with respect to newspapers and so forth, the municipalities
were dissolved and an Italian commissary installed. Their first task was
to introduce the Italian language and make it obligatory, although the
commissary's own employees would often be not more acquainted with it
than with Hindustani. Eighty-five per cent. of the civil servants in the
occupied territory were Yugoslavs; during March and April 1919 they were
deprived of their salaries because they had declined, in accordance with
the existing laws and particularly in accordance with the terms of the
Armistice, to make a request in Italian to the Provisional Government
that they should be confirmed in their posts. This outrageous order,
which left hundreds of families without the means of subsistence, was
not merely illegal--let alone inhumane--but was in contradiction with an
earlier order issued by Admiral Millo, which was placarded throughout
the territory and which confirmed in their posts all the civil
employees. However, the Italians were unsuccessful in their efforts to
obtain these signatures, though they did not abandon their watchword:
"Either Italy or starvation!" They never ceased to persecute the
peasants of the surrounding country and islands. Commands, menaces,
blows inflicted by carabinieri and officers, houses searched night after
night, and so on.... In the second half of February it was intended to
conduct a number of peasants, accompanied by Italian flags, to Zadar, so
that they might thank the Admiral, who chanced to be there, for the
benefits which Italy had bestowed upon them. An officer who in this
branch achieved particular distinction was Lieutenant de Sanctis, the
Commandant of Preko, a village opposite Zadar. Bread and Italian
promises were dangled before these poverty-stricken fisherfolk and
peasants; they refused to take part in the ridiculous demonstration, and
in order to avoid being made to go they concealed themselves and even
went to the length of sinking their boats. In the possession of a
peasant at Preko, [vS]ime [vS]ari['c] Mazi['c], were found some
banknotes with a Yugoslav stamp on them and a very small French flag;
for these transgressions de Sanctis ordered first that he should receive
a box on the ears, after which he was bound, thrown into prison, and
there flogged by carabinieri who, as two doctors afterwards certified,
inflicted serious injuries upon his hands, which they beat with chains.
For the same reasons and at the same place a peasant called Mate
Lon[vc]ar was imprisoned and wounded with a bayonet. On March 2 at Preko
the Italians, enraged because the people had not come to their
demonstration, dispersed with sticks all those who were assembled in
front of the church, and prevented the Mass from being celebrated. On
March 29 the aforementioned Lon[vc]ar was condemned to three years'
imprisonment because 11,780 crowns, unstamped notes, had been found on
him; the notes, of course, were confiscated. Such notes, by the way,
were given or received in payment by Italian merchants at a discount of
10 per cent., 15 per cent. or 20 per cent. Even the military used these
forbidden notes, and compelled the peasants at the market to accept
them. In the night of March 15-16 six of the leading Yugoslavs of
Zadar, who had not ceased to advise the people to bear their present
misfortunes in patience, were suddenly arrested and deported to Italy;
they included Mr. Joseph de Ton[vc]i['c], President of the Yugoslav Club
and formerly the Deputy-Governor of Dalmatia; he was a man seventy-two
years of age and in precarious health. During this same night forty
persons were deported from Knin, three from Drni[vs], three from
Obrovac, four from Skradin, nine from [vS]ibenik and four from
Benkovac.... On the populous island of Olib (Ulbo) the abuses connected
with the distribution of food were exceptionally flagrant; here the
Italian officers compelled everyone to stand still, bare-headed, when
they passed; they would not allow anyone to leave the island, and
forbade the peasants to speak Croatian! On the opposite island of Silba
(Selve) the schoolmaster, Matulina, and the priest, an old man of
seventy-five, called Lovrovi['c], were imprisoned. The latter had told
his parishioners, in the course of a sermon, to behave well during Lent
and keep away from the Italian sailors. He was thereupon shipped to
Zadar and thrust into a moist and dirty dungeon, where for two days and
nights he was at the mercy of six criminals.... After having seen at
Zadar a number of persons belonging to each party, I had the pleasure of
meeting Dr. Boxich. It was indeed a pleasure, because this thin,
highly-strung Italianized Slav, the former chief of the Radical Italian
party, was full of the most fraternal sentiments towards the Slavs. If,
he said, their peasants lacked education, one ought to assist them; not
to do so was a sin against humanity. It had been the desire, he said, of
his party, both before and during the War, to work openly against the
Austrian Government, unlike the Moderate Italian party, of Ziliotto,
which feigned to be very pro-Austrian. While Ziliotto was receiving high
Austrian decorations, he was an object of persecution, and was obliged
to go away and live for two and a half years in Rome. Ziliotto, he said,
was Zadar's evil spirit, seeing that he had thoroughly deceived and
betrayed Italy--so many of those who now called themselves good Italians
had been very good Austrians, and would as readily have turned into good
Americans or Frenchmen. So petty and local was Ziliotto's party, with
no idea of the world or of freedom. In fact, I thought that if a
Yugoslav had listened to the doctor's eloquence he would have overlooked
a recent lapse or two, when Boxich, in order to prove to Admiral Millo
that he was a much better Italian than Ziliotto, was alleged by the
Yugoslavs to have committed various dark deeds in connection with a hunt
for hidden arms. The Admiral also had told me that he was not pleased
with Dr. Boxich. "At present," said the doctor to me, "I am isolated,
and I am proud of it. This is not the time to found a party of ideas;
the atmosphere is too morbid, too passionate. This is the time," he
said, "for an honourable man to remain isolated and to stay at home."
... Several weeks after this at Sarajevo, I read in a Zagreb newspaper, the
_Rije['c] S.H.S._, that Dr. Boxich, on account of having--exceptionally,
the paper said--spoken the truth to a passing foreigner, had been
deported to Italy.