Lying off Kor[vc]ula, that evening, we received the usual delegates. One
of the Italians, Dr. Benussi, said in a trembling, tearful voice that
the Italians were far too good. And while we were hearing from one of
his colleagues what were his views on the subject of a plebiscite, Dr.
Benussi moaned unceasingly, "I wish I had not come! I wish I had not
come!" He considered that it was outrageous of us to allude to
plebiscites. The Yugoslavs did not tell us anything very thrilling; the
Italian authorities persisted in writing to the peasants in Italian, of
which they scarcely understand a word. What a pity that this is not
their most serious fault! A barrister called Dr. Pero Cvili[vc]evi['c]
came, with a companion, to see us the next day, before breakfast. He
said that they, like most people on the island, were Croats; and he and
his friend belonged to the Serbo-Croat party, which was, he said, a
righteous, though rather a small party, as the island had been gravely
handicapped by the support which Austria gave the Serbs. "And now," he
added--it seemed a trifle illogical--"the people are all very contented.
Believe me," he said. Furthermore, he volunteered the information that
the law was being administered in the name of the Entente and the United
States. It may show a distinct bias on our part, but I fear we asked
him whether the blows from the butt end of muskets were being applied
under the same sanction.... When we paid our formal visit to the
Commandant at his office on the quay he did not ask if we would care to
go to one of the Italian schools. An American journalist had made a
speech in Rome, describing how he had been taken to a school at
Kor[vc]ula, how the mistress had allowed him to ask the children if they
knew Italian, how they had raised their hands, and how this had
convinced him that Dalmatia should become Italian. Apparently that
journalist had not been told that prior to the War this town of some
2000 inhabitants was provided with five schools in which not a single
child spoke Italian, and with one school subsidized by the Liga
Nazionale which--as in Albania--lured its pupils by gifts of clothing,
books, etc. The teachers, from the Trentino, knew not a word of
Serbo-Croat and the children not a word of Italian. But not very much
harm was done, as the population considered it shameful to attend this
school, and the bribes never succeeded in attracting more than thirty
pupils, even when money was paid to the parents. This institution was
reopened by the Italian army after the War, and presumably it is the one
which the American visited. I do not know whether the schoolmistress,
forewarned of his visit, had told the children in Serbo-Croat that a
gentleman would come and say something in Italian, whereupon they would
hold up their hands.