Month follows month. The reading public and some of the statesmen of the
world begin to recognize that, whatever may be the case on other
portions of the new map, there is nothing unreal or impossible or
artificial about Yugoslavia. This State is the result of a national
movement, having its origins within and not without the peoples whose
destiny it affects. The various Yugoslavs, after being kept apart for
all these centuries, have now--roughly speaking--come to that stage
which the Germans reached in 1866. They cannot rest until they reach
the unity which came to the Germans after 1870. And here also, it seems,
the unity will not be gained without the sacrifice of thousands of young
men. "Go, my son," said Oxenstiern the Swedish Chancellor, "and observe
by what imbeciles the world is governed." It is pitiable that the
leaders of the nations, in declining month after month to give to
Yugoslavia an equitable frontier, should apparently have been more
impressed by the arguments of Mrs. Lucy Re-Bartlett[55] than by those of
an anonymous philosopher in the _Edinburgh Review_.[56] "Nationality?"
says the lady, speaking of the country people of Dalmatia, "nationality?
These people of the country districts--the great mass of the
population--are far too primitive to have any sense of nationality as
yet, but if some day they call themselves Italian...." That is what she
says of a people which through centuries of persecution and neglect have
preserved their language, their traditions, their hopes; a people which,
more than forty years ago, won their great victory against the Habsburg
regime of Italian and Italianist officials, so that with one exception
every mayor in Dalmatia and all the Imperial deputies and hundreds of
societies of all kinds, such as 375 rural savings-banks, were
exclusively Yugoslav. Out of nearly 150,000 votes at the last general
election, which was held in 1911 on the basis of universal suffrage, the
Yugoslav candidates received about 145,000 against 5000 to 6000 for the
Italians. It is indisputable that the Dalmatian peasants are backward in
many things, but one is really sorry for the person who declares in
print that they possess no sense of nationality. Let her visit any house
of theirs on Christmas Eve and watch them celebrate the "badnjak"; let
her listen any evening to their songs. Let her think whether there is no
sense of nationality among the priests, who almost to a man are the sons
of Yugoslav peasants. And let her recollect that these are the days when
the other Yugoslavs are at last uniting in their own free State. She has
the hardihood to tell us of the poor Dalmatians who were being bribed
with waterworks and bridges and gratuitous doctoring. I daresay that the
little ragged Slav children of Kievo whom she saw clustering round the
kindly Italian officer were glad enough to eat his chocolates,[57] but I
think that we others should pay more attention to those secret
societies, the _[vc]etasis_ (which is Slav for komitadjis), who have
sworn to liberate all Istria from the Italians. We may also consider the
proposals made by the Southern Slavs whom Signor Salvemini, the
distinguished Professor of Modern History at Pisa, called "extreme
Nationalists" (see his letter of September 11, 1916, to the editor of
_La Serbie_, which was being published in Switzerland). Well, it appears
that the "extreme Southern Slav Nationalists," as the utmost of their
aspirations, claim the Southern Slav section of the province of Gorica
with the town Triest and the whole of Istria, that is to say, a
territory which, with a population the majority of whom are Slav,
contains also 284,325 Italians, whereas the smallest programme ever
proposed by moderate Italians, including Professor Salvemini, covets
some 364,000 Southern Slavs. Thus the extreme Southern Slav elements, in
their widest demands, are more moderate than the moderate Italians in
their most limited programme. "Without distinction of tribe or creed,"
says that Edinburgh reviewer, "all the Yugoslavs are waiting for their
1870. This will fix and perpetuate their unity.... The preparation is
going forward silently--almost sullenly--and without demur or
qualification the Yugoslavs are accepting the Serb military chiefs'
guidance and domination." He was much impressed by the silence and
controlled power of the Serbian General Staff. There was in Europe a
general war-weariness; but not in Yugoslavia. There was a hush in this
part of Europe, broken only by the shrill screams of Italian
propagandists and outbursts of suppressed passion on the other side.