When the Serbian army came, during the Balkan War, into the historic
town of Prilep a certain soldier sent his family an interesting letter,
which was found a few years afterwards at Ni[vs] and printed in a book.
One passage tells about a conversation as to a disputed point of
mediaeval history between the soldier and a chance acquaintance.
"Brother," said the Serb, "whose is this town?" And the man of Prilep
recognized at once that his catechist was not referring to the actual
possessor but to Marko of the legendary exploits. When the same question
was asked of Gabriele d'Annunzio he said that Rieka was Italian then and
for ever, and that he who proclaimed its annexation to Italy was a
mutilated war-combatant. Most of the citizens, as time went on, began to
think that they would sooner hear about Rieka's annexation to another
land, which was the work of Nature. Those who did not entertain this
view were the salaried assistants of d'Annunzio and the speculators who
had bought up millions of crowns in the hope that Italy, as mistress of
Rieka, would change them into lire, even if she did not give so good a
rate as at Triest. The poet addressed himself to the France of Victor
Hugo, the England of Milton, and the America of Lincoln, but not to the
business men of Rieka, who would have told him that 70 per cent. of the
property, both movable and immovable, was Yugoslav, while 10 per cent.
was Italian and the rest in the hands of foreigners. Not waiting to
listen to such details, d'Annunzio sailed, with a thousand men, to
Zadar, had a conference with Admiral Millo, and won him over. Whether he
would have persuaded Victor Hugo, Milton or Abraham Lincoln, we must
gravely doubt. "I am not bound to win," says Lincoln, whom we may take
as the spokesman of the trio, "but I am bound to be true. I am not bound
to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. I must stand
with anybody that stands right; stand with him while he is right, and
part with him when he goes wrong." In view of the wilful trespass
committed by Italians on the property and rights of the Yugoslavs and
the oft-repeated guarantees of protection given to the Slavs by the
American Government against such invasion, it is passing strange that
d'Annunzio should have appealed to Abraham Lincoln of all people. As for
Admiral Millo, he telegraphed to Rome that he had thrown in his fortunes
with those of d'Annunzio, and he made to the populace a very fiery
speech. It is not known whether he communicated with the France of
Clemenceau, the England of Lloyd George and the America of Wilson, whose
representative he apparently continued to be for the rest of Dalmatia,
while relinquishing that post with regard to Zadar, his residence.