On July 14, 1920, a letter marked "urgent" (No. 2047) was written by
Colonel Sani, the Chief of d'Annunzio's Cabinet, in which he confirmed
the orders which he had already given verbally, to the effect that all
the foreign elements, especially the Serbs and Croats, who "exercise an
obnoxious political influence," should be expelled from Rieka at the
earliest possible date; he mentions that this is the command of
d'Annunzio, who is in full accord with the President of the Consiglio
Nazionale. This was the continuation of a practice which the Italian
authorities had carried on in a wholesale manner. Father J. N.
Macdonald, in his unimpeachable little book, _A Political Escapade_
(London, 1921), gives us numerous examples of persons who in the most
wanton fashion were expelled from the town. Thus a merchant called
Pliskovac was arrested by the carabinieri, while talking to some English
soldiers. After three days, spent under arrest, he was told that he
would have to depart "from Italy" (_sic_). He was given a _faglio di via
obligatorio_ by the carabinieri, according to which he was banished on
the ground of being "unemployed." Yet this man had had a fixed residence
in Rieka for thirty-six years, was employed as a merchant, and furnished
with a regular industrial certificate.... His name had been found on one
of the lists in favour of annexation to Yugoslavia. When the world in
general turned its attention away from Rieka, very much relieved to
think that there would be an end to all the turmoil now that an
agreement had at last been reached and the poor harassed place was to be
neutral, it presumed that those among her citizens who had been openly
in arms against the other party would as soon as possible resign. They
would have been astonished to be told that the notorious self-elected
Consiglio Nazionale Italiano, under the selfsame President, Mr.
Grossich, cheerfully remained in office. It is true that they now called
themselves the "Provisional Government"; in Paris and London this change
of title made a good deal more impression than upon the local Yugoslavs,
whose treatment did not vary. A decree was printed on January 21, 1921,
in the _Vedetta_, which laid it down that the expulsions ordered by the
previous Government retained their force, but that appeals might be
addressed to the Rector of the Interior. A deputation was received by
this gentleman, and was told that the procedure would be so complicated
and so lengthy that it would not permit any one to return until after
the elections. These elections had been fixed for the end of April, and
it seemed as if France and England were so blinded by the blessed words
"Provisional Government" that they could see nothing else. That over
2000 arditi, clothed in mufti, had either stayed from the d'Annunzian
era or been since introduced was surely gossip, and how could anyone
believe that those men had been granted citizenship on the simple
declaration of a Rieka shopkeeper, or some such person, that the
applicant worked under him? These declarations, by the way, must have
refrained from going into details, for there was an almost total lack of
work--except in the political department of the police. Rieka was to all
intents in the possession of Italy, and she was learning what that
meant. The town was like a dead place, shops were only open in the
morning, and if the shopkeepers had not been compelled by the
authorities to remove their shutters they would have strolled down to
the quays where the grass was growing--"but, thank Heaven," cried
Grossich, "thank Heaven, it is Italian grass!" (If he ever recalls that
long-distant day, when, as a student, he fought for his fellow-Croats,
and when, as a young doctor, he was an enthusiastic official of the
Croat Club at Castua near Rieka, perhaps this gentleman thanks his God
for having led him to Rieka and turned him into an Italian.) Cut off
from its Yugoslav hinterland the population of Rieka, which consisted
more and more of arditi and fascisti, less and less of Yugoslavs, the
population had nothing to do save to speculate in the rate of exchange
(but not in the local notes which no one wanted) and to prepare for the
elections. Thus, with time very heavy on their hands, there was a great
deal of corruption; cocaine could be obtained at nearly all the cafes.
The elections drew nearer, and one wondered whether the Entente was
going to look at the lists of voters and to inquire how it came that
many natives of the town were not inscribed. What was likely to happen
if the place was delivered altogether to the C.N.I. could be seen when
the harbour of Baro[vs], given by the Rapallo Treaty to Yugoslavia, was
demanded, simply demanded, by the Italian Nationalists; those
ultra-patriots the fascisti, in Italy and in Rieka, when they saw that
in the "holocaust city" everything was going just as well for them as in
the brave days of d'Annunzio, persisted loudly in claiming Baro[vs] as
an integral part of Rieka. The Yugoslavs must be prevented, wherever
possible, from approaching the Adriatic--this being the furious policy
of the Italian capitalists who had succeeded in sweeping most of the
Italian people off their feet. With Baro[vs], a port of limited
possibilities, in the hands of the Yugoslavs, it would mean that the
adjacent Rieka through its Yugoslav commerce would prosper; but anything
that savoured of a Yugoslav Rieka was obnoxious to the capitalists and
their wild followers, since they feared that in the first place it would
raise a grievous obstacle to their penetration of the Balkans, and
secondly it would involve the ruin of Triest, where German capital still
plays a predominant part. So in their folly they strenuously fought for
the Germans, spurred on by the terrible thought that Rieka might become
predominantly Yugoslav. They refused to listen to their wiser men, who
pointed out that the possession of an odd town or island was to Italy of
not so much importance as friendship with their Slav neighbours. When,
at the beginning of April 1921 a large sailing boat, the _Rad_ (Captain
Vlaho Grubi[vs]i['c]) came into Baro[vs], the first ship to bring the
Yugoslav flag to that port, there was intense commotion among the
fascisti. Forty of them with weapons ran down to the harbour, but
Grubi[vs]i['c] told them that he saw no reason why he should not fly the
flag of his State. A number of workmen, Italians and Yugoslavs, then
appeared and made common cause against the fascisti, so that the latter
withdrew. And the captain of the Italian warship _Carlo Mirabello_ sent
to ask Grubi[vs]i['c] if he had removed the flag. On hearing that he had
not done so the captain said that he had acted perfectly correctly. It
seems to be too much to hope that such honourable Italians as this
captain and these workmen will be able, without certain measures on the
part of France and England, to prevail over those elements who have
dragged Rieka down to death and to dishonour.
At last, on April 25, the elections were held. There were two parties,
that of the C.N.I., swollen with arditi and fascisti, who would have
nothing to do with the Treaty of Rapallo--their programme consisted in
annexation to Italy--and the other party, whose object was to carry out
the provisions of the Treaty. Professor Zanella was its chief. There did
not seem to be much hope that it would be successful, although it
contained what was left of the Autonomists, who in 1919 were the largest
party--desiring that the town should be neither Yugoslav nor
Italian--and these Autonomists were now reinforced by the Yugoslavs. But
so numerous had been the expulsions that many of the survivors feared
that it would be futile to vote, and on the other hand the Annexionist
party was quite confident that it would win. During the afternoon of the
election day, however, they perceived that the impossible was happening,
and that Zanella was marching to victory. Thereupon the enraged fascisti
had recourse to violence. "Zanella's victory was intolerable to these
patriots," said _La Nazione_,[65] "because they remembered the two years
of tenacity and of splendid Italian spirit and of suffering which the
town had lived through." Most of the electors remembered the suffering.
The fascisti seized a number of urns and made a bonfire of them; there
was presented the spectacle of Signor Gigante, d'Annunzio's obedient
mayor, bursting with armed companions into that room of the Palace of
Justice where the votes were being scrutinized. "I yield to violence,"
said the presiding official; and twenty minutes afterwards the contents
of the urns were burning merrily. But these measures did not help the
cause of the fascisti, no more than did their screams that they had been
betrayed. And if Zanella had to fly from Rieka because, as the
Nationalist paper put it, he could not stand up against the vehement
indignation of so many of the citizens, yet he and his party have
triumphed. "Fiume or Death," used to be the device dear to d'Annunzio.
He placarded the long-suffering walls with it, and it was on the lapels
of the coats of his adherents. "Fiume must belong to Italy or be blown
up," cried the poet. But, strange to say, a majority of the inhabitants
prefer that their town should continue to exist, and this it can only do
if, in accordance with the Treaty of Rapallo, it becomes a neutral State
on friendly terms with both its neighbours, Italy and Yugoslavia. The
Italian Government desires, of course, to execute its Treaty
obligations,[66] and if it finds too painful the task of moderating the
ardours of its own super-patriots, it will no doubt be glad to have this
done by an International force. That method, which was only prevented by
d'Annunzio's arrival in 1919, offers the speediest and most efficacious
solution of Rieka's troubles.