Elementary School for Boys Pupils, 250
Elementary School for Girls " 221
Higher Elementary School " 93
Classical College " 157
Technical College " 181
----
Total of Italian Pupils, 902
----
I do not know what were the facts ascertained on the spot by
Mr. Hilaire Belloc which enabled him, without any reservations,
to inform the readers of _Land and Water_ (June 5, 1919) that
"Zara is quite Italian." He added that "Sebenia is Italian
too." If this be so, how comes it that in 1919 the Italian
authorities found it necessary to terrorize Sebenico
([vS]ibenik)--which is presumably the town Mr. Belloc refers
to--with machine guns and hordes of secret police and the very
lurid threats of Colonel Cappone, the town commandant? I
believe it is nearer the truth to say that the population of
this town consists of some 13,000 Yugoslavs and 400
_Italianists_.]
[Footnote 12: This prelate died in December 1920. With fearless
patriotism, said the _Tablet_ (January 1, 1921), he "had
defended his flock from the Germanizing influence of the
Habsburgs and the more insidious encroachments of the
Italians."]
[Footnote 13: The population of Veprinac, according to the last
census, is: Yugoslavs, 2505 (83.7 per cent.); Italians, 24 (0.8
per cent.); Germans, 422 (4.1 per cent.).]
[Footnote 14: Pribi[vc]evi['c] issued a statement to the effect
that the interviewer, Magrini, had put into his mouth the
precise opposite of what he had said with regard to Triest and
Pola. Pribi[vc]evi['c] had told him that the whole of Istria,
with Triest, should be Yugoslav. He reminded Magrini that a
third person was present at the interview.]
[Footnote 15: The supplies for the Austro-Hungarian army in
Albania had been concentrated at Rieka. These had to be guarded
by Yugoslav troops, as the Hungarian watchmen at the port had
disappeared, and the Russian prisoners employed there--about
500 men--had also vanished. In order to keep off nocturnal
plunderers, the Yugoslav troops were told to fire a few shots
now and then into the air. Is it not possible that the two
Italian boys who, as Mr. Beaumont reported, were hit during the
night by stray bullets and succumbed in hospital to their
injuries--is it not possible that they were out for plunder and
that this incident should not be used to illustrate what Mr.
Beaumont (of the _Daily Telegraph_) calls "the worst
characteristics of Balkan terrorism" on the part of the troops?
During the twenty days of the Yugoslav regime their authorities
sold, as they were justified in doing, tobacco from these
warehouses to the value of 120,000 crowns. It was generally
said in Rieka that the Italians in four days had given away six
million crowns' worth, that large quantities of flour were
removed until the British put a stop to this, and that the
robberies were flagrant. These allegations may have been untrue
or exaggerated, but individuals were pointed out who in a
mysterious manner had suddenly become affluent; it would at any
rate have been as well if the I.N.C. had ordered some
investigation. Since they failed to do so, it is natural that
gossip flourished. In Triest, by the way, even the Italian
population is reputed to have been disgusted when about forty
waggon-loads of flour and twenty of sugar were taken from the
stores of the former Austrian army and shipped to Italy.]
[Footnote 16: Most people have assumed that this was done in
order that Rieka should be left to Austria-Hungary, although
they should have taken with some grains of salt this Italian
generosity which presented the Habsburgs with a good harbour
instead of one of those others in Croatia which the Italians of
to-day are never weary of extolling. The real reasons why Rieka
was omitted from the Treaty of London are, as the _Secolo_
(January 12, 1919) remarks, perfectly well known. "In order,"
it says, "to claim Fiume it is necessary to make appeal to the
right of the people to dispose freely of themselves. In this
case the same principle must be admitted for the people of
Dalmatia, who are Slav in a crushing majority. But this is
precisely the negation of the Treaty of London."]
[Footnote 17: The Italianist employes of the Rieka town council
who took the census in 1910 asked the humbler classes if they
were acquainted with the Italian language; those from whom they
received an affirmative reply were put down as Italians. Had
they, on the other hand, asked the people if they spoke
Croatian and put down as Croats those who answered yes, there
would, in the opinion of an expert, Dr. Arthur Gavazzi, have
remained not one single Italian--certainly not the members of
the Italian National Council--as everyone, he says, speaks and
knows Croat. This is a fairly emphatic proof that the fortunes
of Rieka are bound up with those of its suburbs and the
hinterland.]
[Footnote 18: Being the senior in rank of the Allied Generals,
General Grazioli claimed supreme command of all the Allied
troops, but this the French General refused, maintaining--much
to the disgust of the Italians--that he was under the orders of
Franchet d'Esperey, who was then in command of the Army of the
Orient. The Italians were so determined to preserve in their
own hands the military supremacy that a very senior General,
one Caneva, was kept in the background of the palace with the
sole object of stepping forward if any Allied officer senior to
General Grazioli should by chance be posted to the town. The
disrespectful Allies used to call Caneva "the man in the
cellar."]
[Footnote 19: The town of Yugoslavia which, after Austria's
collapse, was stirred the most profoundly by its postage stamps
was Zagreb. In order to commemorate the establishment of the
new State the Croatian Post Office published four stamps, which
were on sale on November 29. The whole edition consisted of
100,000 stamps, of which 24,000 were allotted to Zagreb, the
rest going to other parts of the province. It was obvious that
there would be a great demand for these stamps, and in order to
check any abuses or clandestine traffic it was decided that
they should be sold nowhere but at the post offices, also that
each purchaser would only be allowed to buy a limited quantity.
At 8 a.m. the sale began, but at seven many hundreds of people
were waiting outside the chief post office, the post office at
the station and another in the Upper Town. The face value of
the four stamps, added together, was one crown. At first they
were resold for between 4 and 20 crowns, then the price jumped
to 30, and by 10 a.m. the 45-heller stamp (of which only 15,000
had been printed) was sold out. Collectors were paying 8 or 10
crowns for it, in order to complete their sets. At noon the
offices were all shut, as the rush was considered too
dangerous. More than 1000 persons were in the great hall at the
Head Office and another 2000 were gathered outside. Nearly all
the windows where the stamps were being sold were broken. At
the Station Post Office the people began to fight with the
sentries. The National Guard had to be sent for. At 4 p.m. the
post offices had no stamps left (and citizens who had been
waiting all day to buy an ordinary stamp could not be served).
At 5 p.m. people who for the first time in their lives were
taking an interest in philately, wanted 300-500 crowns from
collectors for a whole series. Between 5 and 6 p.m. a stamp
exchange was held in the entrance hall. Eight hundred to one
thousand crowns were being demanded for the series. Soldiers
were willing to give the four stamps in exchange for a pair of
boots, others were asking for sugar, coffee or petrol. The
price which was ultimately established was 250 crowns.]
[Footnote 20: Out of the hundreds of available documents it
will suffice if I print one. It is the report, given in his
words, of a Dalmatian, a native of Sinj, who having been an
emigrant could write in English. "On July 1915 I came to the
Italian front, and on the morrow I went across the lines and
deserted to the Italians. As soon as I arrived at the station
of internment I requested the Command to be admitted as a
voluntary into the Serbian army. This petition of mine was
answered by Italian authorities in the negative. After the
Congress of Rome in 1918 I and some of my comrades who had
recently applied for admission were permitted to join the
Yugoslav legion on June 1. I was right away sent to the front
of the Tyrol, where on August 7 I was wounded in a hard bayonet
fight. On this occasion I was decorated by the Italian
Commander for valour. After 45 days of hospital by my own
request I was sent to the front, where I remained up to the
break-up of Austria or until we Yugoslav legion were disarmed
by Italians and as a reward for our participation in the war we
were interned as prisoners of war at Casale di Altamura in the
province of Bari. Four days after my internment I succeeded in
sliding away, so that on the Christmas Eve I was again in
Dalmatia. (Signed) JAKOV DELONGA."]
[Footnote 21:
"In tra 'l gregge che misero e raro
L'asburgese predon t' ha lasciato,
Perche piangi, o fratello croato,
Il figiul che in Italia mori."
("There among the woebegone where the most contemptible
Habsburger has abandoned his prey, so that, O my Croat brother,
it weeps for the dear son who died in Italy.")]
[Footnote 22: April 23, 1919.]
[Footnote 23: Cf. _La Slavisation de la Dalmatie._ Paris,
1917.]
[Footnote 24: The Italians are very poorly served by some of
their advocates. For years they persisted in demanding the
execution of whatever in the Treaty or Pact of London was
obnoxious to the Serbs, while they regarded as obsolete another
clause, respecting the formation of a small independent
Albania, which was distasteful to themselves, and--if I rightly
understand the Italophil Mr. H. E. Goad--they were justified
because, forsooth, Bulgaria had entered the War on the other
side. To say that the idea of this small Albania, with
corresponding compensations to the Serbs and Greeks, was held
out as a bribe to the Bulgars does not seem to me a very wise
remark. However, "ne croyez pas le pere Bonnet," said
Montesquieu, "lorsqu'il dit du mal de moi, ni moi-meme lorsque
je dis du mal du pere Bonnet, parce que nous nous sommes
brouilles." Let the reader trust in nothing but the facts, and
I hope that those which I present are not an unfair selection.]
[Footnote 25: When Supilo, the late Dalmatian leader, heard
about the secret Treaty, he went to Petrograd and saw Sazonov.
The interview is said to have been stormy, for the Russian
Minister, according to the _Primorske Novine_ (April 23, 1919),
"had not the most elementary knowledge of the Slav nature of
Dalmatia, still less of Istria, Triest, Gorica and the rest."
Mr. Asquith, whom Supilo afterwards visited in London, is said
to have been no better informed than Sazonov.]
[Footnote 26: And appearing subsequently in London, as Nikita's
Prime Minister, was the central figure of a reception given by
Lord Sydenham at the Savoy. But out of fairness to his lordship
I must add that in an hour's conversation he impressed me with
the fact that he was even less acquainted with Plamenac's
antecedents than he was with other Montenegrin affairs, which
he raised on more than one occasion in the House of Lords,
endeavouring there--until Lord Curzon overwhelmed him--to play
the part that was assumed by Mr. M'Neill in the Commons.]
[Footnote 27: We shall see that the subsequent history of this
officer was less laudable.]
[Footnote 28: Cf. _Nineteenth Century and After_, January
1921.]
[Footnote 29: This very able priest became Vice-President of
the Council of Ministers when the first Yugoslav Cabinet was
formed. When Cardinal Bourne visited Belgrade in the spring of
1919 a Mass was celebrated by the Yugoslav Cabinet Minister,
the British Cardinal and a French priest who was an aviation
captain in the army. Monsignor Koro[vs]ec's position reminds
one that in the early days of Bulgaria's freedom her Premier
was the Archbishop of Trnovo.]
[Footnote 30: Cf. p. 60, Vol. II.]
[Footnote 31: Cf. _The New Europe_, March 27, 1919.]
[Footnote 32: There are in the Banat some ultra-patriotic
Magyars, such as the man at Antanfalva (Kova[vc]i[vc]a) who,
having lost something between his house and the post office,
insisted on advertising for it in the Buda-Pest papers. But the
Yugoslav rule was so satisfactory that, two or three years
after the Armistice, I found in the large Hungarian village of
Debelyacsa--where the _intelligentsia_ called the sympathetic
Serbian notary by his Christian name--not one of the
inhabitants proposed to remove to Hungary. No doubt the
goodness of the soil had something to do with this decision,
but, more, the liberal methods of the Serbs. No military
service was as yet exacted--all that the Magyars had been asked
to do was to work for two months in obliterating the ravages of
war. The priest and the schoolmaster who had come from Hungary
before the War still exercised their functions, and--in
contrast with what had previously been the case--both the
Magyar and the Serbian language were taught, the latter from
the third class upwards. Altogether there was perfect harmony
between the Magyars and the Serbs; when I was there the only
racial question which occupied the Magyar farmers was the
resolve of their _intelligentsia_ to have, as centre-half in
the football team, not a Magyar but a more skilful Jewish
player.]
[Footnote 33: The Southern Slavs generally acknowledged that
the Foreign Office was bound to behave to Italy, one of the
Great Powers, with a certain deference. They also recognize
that the Foreign Office is not actuated by malevolence if she
treats Belgrade as she did Morocco, when in place of the
strikingly appropriate and picturesque appointment of Sir
Richard Burton our Legation there was occupied by one of a
series of diplomatic automata. After all, these automata, who
have spent more or less laborious years in the service, have to
be deposited somewhere. But if one does not demand of the
Foreign Office that she should make a rule of sending to the
Balkans, where the personal factor is so important, such a man
as the brilliant O'Beirne, who during the War was dispatched
too late to Bulgaria, yet a moderate level should be
maintained--it has happened before now that we have been
represented in a Balkan country by a Minister who, some time
after his arrival, had not read a Treaty dealing with those
people and of which Great Britain was one of the high
contracting parties; when taxed with this omission the
aforesaid Minister hung his head like a guilty schoolboy.]
[Footnote 34: October 13, 1921.]
[Footnote 35: This has been done, but to a much more limited
extent, in Hungary where several hundred men who distinguished
themselves in the European War have been granted the Gold Medal
for Bravery, which entitles each of them to a goodly portion of
land. This the recipient may not sell, but he need not leave it
to his eldest son if a younger one is more interested in
agriculture. Each medallist, by the way, is authorized to
exhibit outside his house a notice which informs the world that
he possesses this most treasured decoration; but perhaps to our
eyes the strangest privilege the Medal carries with it is the
permission to write "Vitez" (which is the Hungarian for
"brave") in front of the name. Thus if Koranji Sandor is
decorated he is to call himself henceforward Vitez Koranji
Sandor, and that is the correct address on an envelope. Not
only is the honorific awarded to him, but is to be used by all
his sons and by their sons. We might imagine that a man would
shrink from permanently calling himself Brave John Smith,
especially if he has been very brave, but the average Magyar
will not feel excessively awkward, since he is not altogether
repelled by that which is garish.]
[Footnote 36: The Czechs believe that Agrarian Reform should be
the work of a generation. They are beginning on the very large
estates, those which run to more than 50,000 hectares, and in
calculating the price to be paid, 40 per cent. is deducted for
the State on properties of this size. On those of between
20,000 and 50,000 hectares 30 per cent. is deducted, and so on
down to the 5 per cent., which is appropriated from the
holdings of from 1000 to 2000 hectares. It is also the
Government's intention in Czecho-Slovakia to take in hand such
properties as are badly administered, and, by a wise proviso,
when a denunciation arrives to the effect, for example, that
the proprietor is not using manure and that thus the State is
suffering injury, a dozen men, belonging to the various
political parties, go down to investigate. If they find that
the accusation is not justified and that the place is
satisfactorily worked, then the man who made the charge is
obliged to pay the examining committee's expenses.]
[Footnote 37: The trouble arose at the end of May when a number
of citizens of [vS]ibenik, men and women, donned the American
colours as a compliment to the sailors of the U.S. warship
_Maddalena_, who had taken to wearing those of Yugoslavia. The
[vS]ibenik ladies and men, relying perhaps on the words of
Admiral Millo with regard to Allied colours, never dreamed that
any objection would be made. But suddenly one evening everybody
with these colours was attacked by Italian soldiers, who tore
them off and explained that it was done by the General's order.
Italian officers did not interfere while ladies were being very
roughly handled. A certain Jakovljevi['c], a shopkeeper, who
had sold an American flag, was imprisoned. On the same evening
a number of prominent citizens were summoned before the town
commandant, Colonel Cappone, who spoke as follows: "A Croat, a
Croat has dared to display a flag before an ardito!" [An
American flag.] "This fool! instead of giving him a black eye,
the ardito pulled off his flag. This is Italy! Mind you don't
go to the _Maddalena_ to-morrow! Whatever it costs me, I shall
prevent it! You are the leaders who will be responsible for
anything that happens to-morrow." [This was the eve of the
Italian national celebration of June 1.] "Our arditi are
blood-thirsty; do not be surprised if some lady of yours
receives a black eye.... We are the masters here! This is
Italy! This is Italy! We have won the War, we have spent
milliards and sacrificed millions of soldiers." On this Mr.
Mi[vs]e Ivanovi['c] remarked: "I beg your pardon, but the Paris
Conference has not yet decided the fate of these territories."
And the Colonel replied, "It has been decided! But even if we
had to leave, remember that on taking down our flag we shall
destroy everything, with 5000 machine guns, 2000 guns and
40,000 men! Good night, gentlemen." This declaration made by
the town commandant, presumably a responsible officer, was
testified by the signature of all those who were present....
When, in 1921, the Italians were leaving [vS]ibenik they
destroyed a large number of young trees in the park and
elsewhere. The Venetians, in the Middle Ages, had cut down
millions of Dalmatian trees, but always with a utilitarian
purpose.]
[Footnote 38: In view of what the census said with regard to
this place it is superfluous to add that when an Italian
officer in my hearing asked one who was stationed there if
there was any social life, the other answered: "None at all;
the whole population is Slav." I find that _Modern Italy_
(published in London) quoted with approval the following
telegram which appeared, it said, in the _Tempo_ of May 9: "A
remarkably enthusiastic celebration took place at Obrovazzo.
Several thousands, including representatives of the
neighbouring villages, formed a procession and marched through
the town. In the principal piazza, the President of the
National party, Bertuzzi, delivered a stirring speech, which
was enthusiastically applauded."]
[Footnote 39: It is customary for Serbian officers to wear but
one decoration, the highest among those to which they are
entitled. To illustrate this Serbian modesty regarding
honorifics, I might mention that one evening at the house of a
Belgrade lawyer I heard his wife, a Scotswoman, to whom he had
been married for more than a year, ascertain that he had won
the Obili['c] medal for bravery and several other decorations
which--and his case was typical--he had not troubled to
procure.]
[Footnote 40: June 24, 1919.]
[Footnote 41: May 15, 1919.]
[Footnote 42: Mr. Leiper in the _Morning Post_ (June 23, 1920)
scouts the idea of these malcontents being the supporters of
Nikita, who "were all laid by the heels or driven out of the
country long ago--largely by the inhabitants themselves." He
observes that the land is one land with Serbian soil--its
frontiers are merely the artificial imposition of kings and
policies. The nations, he points out, are not two but one--one
in blood, in temperament, in habits, in tradition, in language;
round the fireside they tell their children the same stories,
sing them the same songs: the greatest poem in Serbian
literature, as all the world knows, was written by a
Prince-Bishop of Montenegro. Since the day when the Serbian
State came into existence it has been, he says, the constant,
burning desire of the Montenegrins to be joined to it. We may
well rub our eyes at a letter in the same newspaper from Lord
Sydenham, who makes the perfectly inane remark that this
constant, burning desire was never probable. "Montenegro
already _is_ Serbia," says Mr. Leiper, "and Serbia Montenegro,
in every way except verbally." But Lord Sydenham has set
himself up as a stern critic of the Serbs in Montenegro;
therefore he cannot countenance the Leiper articles, which give
him "pain and surprise." Is he surprised that Mr. Leiper, a
shrewd Scottish traveller, who is acquainted with the language,
should disagree with him? "The great mass of the people," says
Mr. Leiper, "are as firm as a rock in their determination that
Nicholas shall never return." Listen to Lord Sydenham: "I am
afraid," says he, "that your correspondent has been misled by
the raging, tearing Serbian propaganda with which I am
familiar." And he quotes for our benefit an unnamed
correspondent of his in Montenegro who says that the people
there are terrified of speaking. It is much to be desired that
a little of this terror might invade a gentleman who plunges
headlong into matters which he does not understand.]
[Footnote 43: Cf. _Morning Post_, November 17, 1920.]
[Footnote 44: A most vivid account of this affair was
contributed to the _Chicago Tribune_ (July 13, 1919) by its
correspondent, Thomas Stewart Ryan, one of the two neutral
eye-witnesses. He came to the conclusion that as Italy was an
interested party and was exasperated by the long delay in the
decision, an outbreak even more violent might occur unless her
forces were brought down to the level of the other Allies. In
alliance with the city rabble, the Giovani Fiumani, Italian
soldiers attacked the French: "I can state emphatically," says
Mr. Ryan, "that the French guards did nothing whatever to
provoke the assault, some details of which would blot the
escutcheon of most savage tribes. I saw soldiers of France
killed, after surrender, by their supposed Allies.... I could
scarcely believe my ears when Italian officers rapped out the
order to load. But they seemed to remember that Frenchmen can
fight." However, he also saw an Italian officer who "prevented
this murder and held back the civilians who were trying to
reach their victim. I must record it to the credit of this
officer that his was the only Italian voice to defend the game
little soldier. 'A hundred against one! Shame on you, soldiers
of Italy!' I wish I knew this officer's name." At another part
of the harbour, "A British naval officer, fearing that the
wounded Frenchman would be stabbed inside the court to which he
was dragged, followed the body and defied the captain of
carabinieri, who ordered him to leave." And at the close "I was
no longer alone with my friend as a neutral eye-witness. The
British Admiral Sinclair appeared, causing much perturbation to
the Italian officers, who though some of them had just taken
part in the shambles, were already glib with excuses. 'The
British Admiral wants to know' was enough to bring the Italian
officer running and bowing, with 'I beg of you....' 'We are
willing to explain all....' American naval officers of the
destroyer _Talbot_ were also among this post-mortem crowd. In a
French motor bearing two Italian officers who stood up to ward
off possible shots, came a French captain. He was of that calm,
splendid type that makes you think of the Chevalier Bayard, a
knightly figure. Quietly he moved among his dead. Not by the
flicker of an eyelid did he give token of what was working deep
down in that French heart of his. I heard an Italian officer
tell him that the French had started the most regrettable
affair by firing on the Italian ships. The officer spoke this
falsehood under the glazed stare of the French dead and the
protesting gaze of the wounded. The French captain nodded his
head, remarked, 'Oh yes! of course. Now we must only pick up
the wounded,' and, with all the gentleness of a mother beside
her child's sick-bed...." A very good account of this shocking
episode is contained in _A Political Escapade: The Story of
Fiume and d'Annunzio_, by J. N. Macdonald, O.S.B. (London,
1921). His narrative is extremely well documented--he appears
to have been a member of the British Mission. "It is
incomprehensible," says he, "how officers and men could attack
the very post that they had been sent to defend. Moreover, they
were over 100 strong and fully armed, whereas the French
garrison was small and had no intention of putting up a
defence." One of the lesser outrages described by Father
Macdonald, since it was not attended with fatal results, was
that which happened to Captain Gaillard, who from his window
saw an Italian lieutenant shoot and kill with his revolver an
unarmed Annamese. The captain cried out with rage, and when his
room was entered by fifteen men carrying rifles with fixed
bayonets and they ordered him to go with them, Madame Gaillard
tried to intervene and received a blow on the arm dealt with
the butt end of a rifle. At this juncture an Italian officer
appeared and roughly told Gaillard to come without further
delay. A mob of civilians and soldiers who were outside greeted
Gaillard with a shower of blows, and while they went along the
street, the officer escorting him kept up a volley of abuse
against France and England. Very fortunately for Gaillard he
was brought into the presence of an Italian officer to whom he
was personally known. This gentleman, looking very uneasy,
refused to give the name of his brother-officer, but caused the
Frenchman to be released.]
[Footnote 45: Cf. _The Balkan Peninsula_ (English translation).
London, 1887.]