At Starigrad on our arrival the harbour and its precincts looked like the
scene of an opera, with an opening chorus of carabinieri. They were posted
at various tactical points and no one else was visible. One of them
advanced, however, and conducted us at our request to the office of the
Commandant, a major who must have played a very modest part in the War, as
I believe he only had three rows of ribbons.[39] He gave us some vermouth
and informed us that the population was very quiet, very happy. When I said
that I would like to see the mayor he sent an orderly, and in less than one
minute his worship stood before us. He immediately confirmed what the major
had said with regard to the population. In fact the picture which he drew
brought back to memory the comment of the Queen of Roumania who, when an
American lady at a reception in Belgrade told her that she lived at a place
called Knoxville or Coxville in the States, replied "How nice!" The good
Italians, quoth the mayor, were distributing supplies among the natives,
and with the exception of the Croat _intelligentsia_ they all wished for
union with Italy. I asked him if he did not think that, looking at it from
the economic point of view, there would be some difficulties when the
island's exports--wine and oil and fish--would have to compete with the
products of Italy. But he said that one must think of the other
benefits--no longer would the island have to bear the hated Austrian. It
was all the fault of Austria, he continued, that after 1885 the Starigrad
municipality had been Croat; since then the Italians had lost their school
and their orchestra. But now it would all be changed. He was clearly a
product of the new dispensation; and he told me that as the ex-mayor was an
Austrian of course he had to be discharged. Nothing else did this gentleman
tell me, which was a pity, as in a message, presumably sent by him, to an
Italian newspaper, _La Dalmazia_,[40] of Zadar, it was stated that in this
conversation I had displayed a supreme ignorance of local questions....
Then we all stood up and the major said that he would accompany us down to
the boat. I told him that I would join him there after I had seen some
Yugoslavs, and Pommerol was good enough to walk away with him while I went
round the ancient little town--it even has some Cyclopaean walls--with
certain Yugoslavs, two lawyers and a doctor. One of the lawyers turned out
to be the ex-mayor, whose Austrianism had apparently taken a less active
form than that of his successor, for he had only been an Austrian subject,
while the actual mayor--Dr. Tama[vs]kovi['c]--had served, until the end of
the War, in the 22nd Austrian Regiment. With regard to the events of 1885,
they told me that this was the time when the Croatian national
consciousness awoke, so that an insufficient number of people had remained
either to support an Italian school or yet an orchestra. And now the number
of Italian adherents was about 200 (out of 3600), and might increase if
ice-creams were handed round in all the schools. One of my companions
happened to live in the house of Hektorovi['c], the sixteenth-century poet,
and we spent a few minutes in the perfectly delightful garden with its
palms and shady paths and bathing tank, like that one in the Alcazar at
Seville. Then we went on to the harbour where a number of the people were
collected. Pommerol was in the middle of a group of military and naval
officers and civilians, these latter being partly visitors from Istria and
Zadar. Suddenly a woman, standing near me, threw her head back and cried:
"Viva Italia!" when other people joined her she redoubled her efforts. I
should say that about thirty people were gathered round the major, shouting
for Italy, and he was obviously gratified. But then a much larger number of
persons who had different sentiments began to shout for Wilson, Yugoslavia
and so forth. The carabinieri rushed among them, howling vengeance. A Mrs.
Politeo, who was holding a bouquet, was flung down by them and trampled on.
The lawyers and the doctor with whom I had been walking were all three
struck over the head or on the shoulders with the butt end of muskets. (_La
Dalmazia_ wrote that I had been filling their heads with idle tales.)
Children were screaming. I saw another woman, hatless, being dragged off by
a couple of carabinieri--and a naval officer, who was disgusted, sternly
ordered them to let her go--and they obeyed reluctantly. Four Dominican
monks were next attacked--they had not taken part in the demonstration; it
was enough for the carabinieri that they belonged to the Yugoslav party.
One of them, Father Rabadan--an elderly gentleman with gold spectacles--was
thrown down, struck until his face was covered with blood, and then dragged
off to prison. The carabinieri were being helped by soldiers--one of these
I saw in the act of loading his rifle--and the noise was tremendous. Here
one would see a Yugoslav trying to tell one of the warriors that he had
done nothing; then another ardito would go swooping on to his prey: one or
two of the officers looked awkward--one or two actually looked exultant. As
we steamed out of the harbour four or five carabinieri and arditi were
running along the road parallel with us, others were climbing over the
stone walls--apparently it was a man-hunt. "There are places in Dalmatia,"
Signor Luzzatti, an Italian ex-Premier, had been saying in the _Temps_,[41]
"where Yugoslavs and Italians are mingled; but it is clear that in those
circumstances the oldest and serenest civilization should prevail. Italy in
her relations with other races has continued the traditions of ancient
Rome.... It is their palpitating desire [_i.e._ that of Fiume, Sebenico,
Zara, Trau, Spalato, etc.] to live under the direct protection of Italy."
And on the next day a telegram was sent to Split from the unoccupied island
of Bra['c], giving the names of twenty-one persons who were arrested, and
the name [Semeri] of an officer who had helped to beat Father Rabadan and
continued: "The carabinieri are still looking for Yugoslavs. On the
occasion of the arrestment of the clerk Nikola Pavi[vc]i['c], the musket of
an ardito went off and an eye was blown out to Mr. Pavi[vc]i['c]. Great
terror prevails among the Yugoslav population." A later message, to the
newspaper _Jadran_ at Split, said that twenty-eight persons had been
arrested and imprisoned in two narrow cells, which were overlooked from the
neighbouring houses. There they were being maltreated, and for the first
day being given nothing to eat. Everyone felt surprise that among the
arrested was a certain Mr. Vladimir Vrankovi['c], as he was one of those
who had betrayed their nationality. But after ten minutes this clumsiness
on the part of a carabiniere was rectified and, by command of Major
Penatta, he was released. All those who could get away from Starigrad were
taking refuge in the villages. The message ended by asking for the
intervention of the Entente, as the people's life was being made
intolerable, and for the reason that they would not trample under foot
everything which they regard as holy. But, according to _La Dalmazia_, the
indignant Italian population sent to the Paris Conference a vibrating
telegram, which begged for immediate annexation to Italy, and protested
against those who in an unworthy and ugly manner had disturbed the place's
beautiful tranquillity.... The prisoners were court-martialled at Zadar and
condemned to terms that varied from four to eight months--seven of the
accused, including Father Rabadan and two other Dominicans, receiving the
severest sentence.... I hope the indignant Italian population dispatched,
later on, a telegram of thanks to the Paris Conference for having ordered
Yugoslavia to guarantee the position of the handful of Italians to be left
in Yugoslav territory, and even their special commercial interests in
Dalmatia; while the half million Slovenes and Croats whom Italy proposed to
annex were not to be protected by an equivalent guarantee. It would be
ridiculous to bind with such conditions a Great, Liberal Power.
After this it was no great surprise to hear, on reaching Hvar, the
capital of the island, that our further progress was impeded. The pale
Commandant of sinister aspect, this time a naval officer, Lieut.
Vincenzo Villa, showed us a telegram from the Vice-Admiral at
Kor[vc]ula, which said that we were not to be allowed to speak to any of
the inhabitants. "To explore the islands there is some little
difficulty," said Burton in a lecture on the ruined cities, which he
visited when he was Consul at Triest. Early in the morning our cook, who
went ashore to see what he could buy, was immediately arrested by the
carabinieri, who were keeping order very much like those "bravissimi
citadini" who in the autumn of 1870, when many of the citizens of Rome
were at loggerheads with the Vatican, arrested and disarmed all those
adherents of the Papacy who showed their noses outside the Vatican's
portals. Our cook was afterwards released by the Commandant, who allowed
him to visit the market, escorted by carabinieri. After that we returned
to Split, and from there to Zadar, in order to see Admiral Millo.
One would like to know what the Admiral would have said if this
interview had taken place a few months later when, in alliance with
Gabriele d'Annunzio, he was in open, armed revolt against the Government
of Italy. The dark-bearded, stately Admiral, Senator of the Kingdom, had
not begun as yet to make that series of buccaneering speeches, and he
courteously told us, more than once, that he could permit of nothing
which would outrage public order. He was much afraid that if we went
back to the islands we would be the cause of lamentable scenes; in fact
he could not let us go without an order from his Government. "These
islands," he said, "are not yet ours; we are occupying them, as you
know, in the name of the Entente and the United States. You have the
right," he said, "to go there; but, unfortunately, if you do, the
population will give way, as they have done already, to excesses." Since
the last thing that we wished was for the islanders to bring us flowers
and cheer the name of Wilson--in view of what these crimes entailed--we
suggested that a small number, four or five of each party--those who
desired to be with Yugoslavia and those who preferred Italy--should in
succession come to us on board. Naturally we should be unable to do so
if we had to visit any inland place; and after a prolonged argument the
Admiral agreed to this plan. We returned to Hvar.