However, the principal disintegrating force in Yugoslavia, we were often
told in England, was Montenegro, where, it seems, the natives were
yearning to cast off their yoke. The British devotees of the former king
told us of the ghastly state of Montenegro, and our Foreign Office was
bombarded with reports which ascribed these evils to the wretched
Government of Yugoslavia. "There is nothing anywhere," says a memorandum
from the ineffable Devine. "The shops are empty, the town markets are
deserted. The peasants, who may not travel from one village to another
without a Serbian 'permit' ... etc. etc." Well, I visited Cetinje market
on a non-market day, and passing through the crowd of people I admired
the produce of various parts of the country--melons, tomatoes, dried
fish, onions, peaches, nuts and cheese, lemons from Antivari and so
forth. I happened to ask a comely woman called Petrie[vc]evi['c] from
near Podgorica whether she had a permit; she looked surprised at such a
question. It is very true that the more mountainous parts of Montenegro
are far from prosperous, but to insinuate that this is the fault of the
Government is childish. Hampered by the lack of transport--practically
everything has to be brought on ox-carts up by the tremendous road from
Kotor--they have recently given away 38,000 kilos of wheat and many
mountain horses at Cetinje. I suppose it was all in the game for Devine
and his assistants to throw mud at the Yugoslav Government if they
believed that they would--for the happiness of the Montenegrins and
themselves--help to restore Nikita. But what was the use of saying that
"the poor people have no money and have nothing to eat; they are said to
be living on a herb of some sort that grows wild in the mountains"?... A
very satisfactory feature of the past year has been the migration of
7000 Montenegrins to more fertile parts of Yugoslavia. And as for
Nikita's partisans, they were such small beer that when they wished to
hold a meeting at Cetinje the Government had not the least objection; it
also allowed them to sing the songs that Nikita wrote, but that was more
than the population of Cetinje would stand. It is only at Cetinje, where
he reigned for sixty years, and at Njegu[vs], where he was born, that
Nikita has any adherents at all. As for his adherents at Gaeta, the
Cetinje authorities were perfectly willing to give a passport to any
woman who desired to spend some time in Italy with her husband or
brother or son. She might stay there or come back, just as she pleased.
And very likely when she got to Gaeta she would relate how in the
cathedral, at the rock-bound monastery of Ostrog, and in other sacred
places, one could see the Montenegrin women cursing their ex-king.