I would also give Signor Buonfiglio's dispatch from this island--it
appeared in the _Corriere d'Italia_ of June 16--but more than
three-quarters of it is devoted to an account of some Dalmatian
delegates who were received, during the War, by Francis Joseph and
expressed their loyalty. The deputation was introduced by Dr.
Iv[vc]evi['c], a Croat; and if Signor Buonfiglio wants us to deduce from
this how ardently the Croats loved the Habsburgs he will have to give
some other explanation for the very loyal speeches of his countryman,
Dr. Ziliotto of Zadar. But I presume that his editor did not send Signor
Buonfiglio on this journey to the end that he should write of what
official speakers saw fit to say during the War. As for the incidents we
witnessed and the islanders' aspirations, he merely says that their
welcome to us was an artificial affair which the Yugoslav committees,
with extreme effort, had organized--and I don't think that that is a
very illuminating observation.
We learned that on arriving in Blato the Italians dissolved the town
council, on account of its incapacity to do the work. However, a
military man to whom it was handed over gave his opinion that he had
never seen a better administration.... Out of all that we were told, I
will relate the following: some Italian soldiers were playing football,
and when they kicked the ball into a maize-field and continued to play
amid the maize, the farmers asked them to desist. Two officers and forty
men were present; they fell upon the three farmers, and when finally the
major commanded them to stop, they dragged them to the barracks and
thrashed them so that the people in adjacent houses heard them all the
night.
On our way to the minute harbour of Pregorica, where the _Porer_ was
waiting for us, we had a repetition of the scenes enacted between
Velaluka and Blato; and a number of young men, heedless of the risks
they ran, rushed down the mountain-side to Pregorica by the shortcuts.
In the harbour were some carabinieri, as well as our escorting
destroyer. We therefore had to leave without delay, lest the young
patriots should come into contact with the carabinieri. So very hastily
and in a very illegible scrawl I copied the original letter given on
November 4, 1918, by Lieut. Poggi to the people of Velaluka: "We
Italians," it said, "have come to Velaluka as the friends of Yugoslavia
and of the Entente. We have come as friends and not as foes, and as such
I ask you to accept us. We are hoisting our flag together with that of
Yugoslavia, and with your friendly consent we will keep it there until
the question of the general peace is definitely arranged, according to
your and our ... according to the principles of ..." The two missing
words are illegible.