Volume Ii Part 4 (1/2)

ITALIAN HOPES IN MONTENEGRO

For months the Italians had been consoling themselves with the thought that such a hybrid affair as Yugoslavia would never really come into existence. Some visionaries might attempt to join the Serbs and Croats and Slovenes, yet these must be as rare as Blake, who testified that ”when others see but the dawn coming over the hill, I see the sons of G.o.d shouting for joy.” One only had to listen, one could hear already how they were growling, how they were quarrelling, how they were killing each other. In Montenegro, for example, and Albania the Italians were greatly interested--not always as spectators. If you tell a hungry Montenegrin peasant in the winter that there is a chance of his obtaining flour and--well, that he may have to fight for it, but he will get good booty at Cetinje, he will go there. In January 1919 there was a battle. ”The Montenegrin people rose in rebellion against the Serbians to recover their independence,” said an Italian writer, one Dr. Attilio Tamaro in a weekly paper called _Modern Italy_, which was published in London. ”This intensely popular revolt, animated by the heroically patriotic spirit of the Montenegrins, was relentlessly suffocated in blood. In the little city of Cetinje alone, where there are but a few thousand inhabitants, over 400 were killed and wounded. The Serbians and the French together accomplished this sanguinary repression. We repeat, it is painful to see the French lend their men, their blood and their glorious arms to the carrying out of the low intrigues of Balkan politics.” The money and the arms that were found on the dead and captured rebels were Italian. If the schemes of the Italians had not been upset by the timely arrival of the Yugoslav forces, with the few Frenchmen, they would have occupied Cetinje and restored the traitor king. As it was, they occupied Antivari, from which place they smuggled arms and munitions into the country. They conspired with the adherents of the old regime, a very small body of men who were enormously alarmed at the loss of their privileged position. The chief of them was Jovan Plamenac, a former Minister whom the people at Podgorica had refused to hear, a few weeks previously, when he attempted to address them. He was hated on account of the most ruthless fas.h.i.+on in which, as Minister, he had executed certain of his master's critics at Kolain. There was a time, during the first Balkan War, when he advocated union with Serbia and on April 6, 1916, he wrote in the _Bosnische Post_ of Sarajevo that Nikita, owing to his flight, ”may be regarded as no longer existing.”

But his unpopularity remained and, with vengeance burning in his heart, he went from Podgorica to the Italians. They concocted a nice plan--he was to raise an army of his countrymen and the Italians would bring their garrison from Scutari. On January 1 Plamenac and his partisans tried to seize Virpazar, on the Lake of Scutari--the Commandant of the Italian troops at Scutari, one Molinaro, had asked the chief of the Allied troops, three days before this attempt, whether he might dispatch two companies to that place for the purpose of suppressing the disorders which had not yet come to pa.s.s. Another rising was engineered at Cetinje, where twenty or thirty of the poor peasants who had let themselves be talked over by Plamenac were killed; the rest of the misguided fellows were sent home, only their leaders being detained.

Plamenac himself escaped to Albania.[26] On the side of the Montenegrin Provisional Government no regular troops were available, as the Yugoslav soldiers who had lately arrived were engaged in policing other parts of the country. Volunteers were needed and a body of young men, mostly students, enrolled themselves. They were so busy that they omitted to inform Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., that they really were Montenegrin students. That indignant gentleman insists that they were Serbs, armed with French and British rifles, against which, he tells us (in the _Nineteenth Century_, January 1921) the insurgents could not do much.

Eleven of these volunteers were killed and they were buried underneath the tree where Nikita used to administer his brand of justice. All kinds of incriminating doc.u.ments were found upon the dead and captured rebels, as also a significant letter from the Italian Minister accredited to Nikita, which was addressed to the chancellor of the Italian Legation at Cetinje. An inter-Allied Commission, over which General Franchet d'Esperey presided, issued their report on February 8 at Podgorica. ”All the troops,” it said, ”in Montenegro are Yugoslavs and not Serbs; there are not more than 500 of them.” It further stated that the rebellion had been provoked by certain agents of the ex-King, a.s.sisted by some Italian agents. As for the ridiculous Italian charge which I quoted, accusing the French of a share in the low intrigues of Balkan politics, this partic.i.p.ation consisted in their General at Kotor demanding of Darkovic, the leader of the Montenegrin deputies, that his followers and the rebels should not come to blows. The reply, which annoyed the General, was to the effect that if the rebels made an attack, then Darkovic with his scratch forces would defend himself--and the battle lasted for two or three days. A junior French officer, who had been in command of a small detachment at Cetinje, told me that the noise of firing had awakened him every night and he had not the least idea what it was all about. But the French had a pretty accurate idea of the nationality of the ”brigands” who on December 29 fired on the SS.

_Skroda_ and _Satyre_ near the village of Samouritch when it was carrying a cargo of flour up the Bojana for the Montenegrins. These vessels were sailing under the French flag and the ”brigands,” about fifty in number, were armed with machine guns. An International Commission established these facts, as also that the Italian s.h.i.+p _Vedeta_ pa.s.sed up the river just before the outrage and the _Mafalda_ just after it, and neither of them was molested. In consequence of what occurred and as practically all the supplies for Montenegro had at that time to be sent by the Bojana, General Dufour, in the absence of French troops, authorized the Serbs on February 12 to occupy the commanding position of Tarabosh.

WHAT HAD LATELY BEEN THE FATE OF THE AUSTRIANS THERE

These Yugoslav troops had been detached from the left wing of the Salonica forces and had come overland in order to deal with the situation in Montenegro. The Austrians had been in a woeful plight; it was regarded as a punishment to serve in Montenegro and Albania, not only because of the lack of amenities and the unruly spirit of the people, but also for the reason that the officers who came there--many managed to avoid it--were too often causes of dissatisfaction. More complaints had gone up from this front than from any other. The supplies allotted by the High Command in Austria were ample, as the Rieka depots testified, but a great deal did not reach its proper destination. Some officers took down their wives or other ladies, loading up the army motor-cars with luxuries of food and grand pianos, while the men were forced to tramp enormous distances; if anyone fell out, the natives in Albania would emerge from where they had been hiding and would deprive the wretched man of his equipment and his clothing, and perhaps his life. The sanitary section of that Austrian army was not good; it happened frequently that victims of malaria and wounded men were told to walk--if they arrived, so much the better. These poor fellows did not know that if they ultimately got back to Vienna they might be the objects of Imperial solicitude--the least to be dreaded was the Archduke Salvator, who was wont to come to a hospital, with his wife, and to bestow on every man a coloured picture-postcard of their Imperial and Royal persons, with a sentence printed underneath respecting their paternal and maternal love; it was officially reported in Vienna, of another hospital, that those who lay there had been spending ”happy hours” in ”the circle of the exalted Family”--this referred to the Archd.u.c.h.ess Maria Immaculata, whose compositions for the piano are said to be beyond all criticism; she herself did not play them, but would sit there while they were inflicted by a courtier on the helpless men. Not very enviable was the lot of those Magyar officers who were taken to that hospital in Buda-Pest over which the Archd.u.c.h.ess Augusta, a strikingly ugly woman, presided. It was a regulation that no wounds were allowed to be dressed until the Archd.u.c.h.ess, arrayed in uniform and armed with a revolver, made her appearance of an evening. The officers were told that it was etiquette for them to broach a pleasant conversation with their benefactress. But the most dangerous Habsburg was the Archd.u.c.h.ess Blanka, who was interested in medicine; she had thought out for herself a remedy which human ailments never would withstand, but which was more especially effective in cases of tuberculosis, of malaria and of kidney diseases. At the hospital in the Kirchstetternga.s.se she had a ward entirely devoted to kidneys. Her treatment consisted in hot bandages of corn-flowers; the patients were packed in these bandages and that was all that was done to them. With regard to the diet, there were no particular regulations. Some of the men were sent from there to another and less original hospital, but it was often too late.

AND OF THE NATIVES

The Montenegrins who had been for so long--some of them for three years--leading a congenial life among their rocks, descending now and then to kill an Austrian and to gather booty, were most active when the ill-starred Imperial army was retiring. Six hundred Austrians, for instance, took the road from Kolain with the intention of marching to Lieva Rieka, a distance of 45 kilometres. Thirty-five of them arrived there. Thus the population avenged such incidents as the hanging by the Austrian authorities of the brother of the ex-Minister General Veovic,[27] the General having taken to the hills and his brother being executed by way of reprisal. The Austrians had now to pay the penalty of ruthlessness; on September 1, 1917, Count Clam Martinic, the Military Governor, issued Order No. 3110 which stated that: ”In consequence of the recent inquiry having revealed the fact that telegraph and telephone wires have been cut by civilians, we make the following order:

”1. Persons caught red-handed in acts of sabotage will be summarily shot, their houses will be razed to the ground and their property confiscated by the Military Administration Authorities.

”2. If the author of the outrage cannot be found, the procedure will be as follows:--

”(_a_) The commune where the act of sabotage has taken place will be condemned to a heavy fine. If the sum demanded is not paid within forty-eight hours, the cattle will be seized.

”(_b_) Hostages will be taken who, if the cases of sabotage are repeated, will be executed in their commune.”

Life under the Austrians had become unendurable. Typhoid fever, marsh fever, typhus and dysentery a.s.sumed such proportions that in the towns and villages one saw--apart from such notices as Order No. 3110--no other bills posted up on the walls but those containing advice as to the correct way of nursing the sick. While poor wretches were dying of hunger in the hospitals and on the high road for want of bread, the authorities published a recipe for the making of wheat-b.u.t.ter, which was a recent discovery of German science, reputed to be very nouris.h.i.+ng for debilitated organisms. But the price of a kilo (2 lb.) of wheat was 12 crowns (about 10s.). When the epidemic of typhus, which broke out in Cetinje and in the Njegu clan, reached alarming proportions and spread to other districts, the medical authorities advertised that household effects and linen should be washed with water and potatoes. A kilo of potatoes, in the autumn of 1917, cost a price equivalent to 6s., a quart of oil cost 2, 10s., a quart of milk 5s., a kilo of coffee 2, 18s. 4d., a yard of cloth 4, 4s. to 6, 6s., a pair of boots 8, 7s. An average of 200 persons--mainly women and children--were dying every day of starvation.

The Austrian army in retreat was incapable of action. It occupied a line east of Podgorica: Bioce-Tuzi-Lake of Scutari, with very few guns. The troops were scanty, they were weakened by malaria, etc.; but the Italians pursued them with great caution. The chief enemies were Albanians and Montenegrins. The wily Austrians gave rifles to the Albanians in order that they should attack the Montenegrins, but they were often used against their former owners. Then the contingents of the Salonica army came across the mountains, and when the Austrians went north, as best they could, the Yugoslavs of the Imperial and Royal army--Bosniaks were well represented--pinned on their tunics the national colours and were greeted by the inhabitants. Arriving at Cetinje they heard the incredible news that a Yugoslav State had been founded, that the Austrian navy had been handed over to the Yugoslavs, that French and Italians were already at Kotor. During the journey to that port the commanders were depressed, but the rank and file rejoiced at the idea of going home. Discipline was at an end. Thousands of rockets were fired into the air. It was the end of the Habsburg monarchy.

NOW NIKITA IS DEPOSED

The next thing for the Montenegrins to do was to depose Nikita. By a futile proclamation that personage had tried in October to resist the union of the Yugoslavs; he had made a last desperate attempt to save his crown. ”I am ready to do,” he said, ”what my people desires.” He plaintively protested that all his life had been dedicated to their service and now he wanted to go back to ascertain precisely what they wished. ”Montenegro,” he had said, ”belongs to a nation of heroes, who fought with honour for the highest ideals.” But when on November 24 the Great National Skuptina met, and when on the 26th it unanimously deposed him--the old gentleman was wise enough to follow the advice of some French statesmen and remain where he was. ”Here am I amongst you, dressed in our beautiful national costume,” he said at Neuilly to his supporters, on one of the occasions when he denied that he had been a traitor or anything so dreadful. But being a prudent old gentleman he refrained from uttering these words at Podgorica, where the Skuptina had met; a better plan was to communicate with the Press a.s.sociation, in the hope that many editors would print his words. If it was a final anti-climax for a mediaeval prince--ah well, what is life but one long anti-climax? He would protest against the const.i.tution of the Skuptina. He had by no means given his approval to the new election laws; and if, contrary to his own practice, the gendarmes were having nothing to do with the urns, that was merely in order to curry favour with the Western Powers. The deputies were chosen by the people indirectly--that is to say, every ten men elected a representative, and these in their turn elected the deputies. This was not done by ballot, for Montenegro, like Hungary, had never known the ballot. An absurd outcry was raised by Nikita's band of adventurers and their unhappy dupes in this country; they called the world to witness this most palpable iniquity on the part of the Serbs, whose armed forces had rushed across the mountains, and the moment they arrived in Montenegro had so overawed the population that this pro-Serb, pro-Yugoslav Skuptina was duly chosen. Go to! Of course it was a sad disappointment to Nikita that a Yugoslav instead of an Italian army should occupy Montenegro. He had telegraphed at the beginning of the War to Belgrade that: ”Serbia may rely on the brotherly and unconditional support of Montenegro, in this moment on which depends the fate of the Serbian nation, as well as on any other occasion”; and since he knew, without any telegram, that Serbia would in her turn support Montenegro--but not the tiny pro-Nikita faction--he was reduced to the appalling straits of a plot to force himself upon his own people by means of a foreign army. Now the composition of the aforementioned Yugoslav forces should be noted--after more than six years of heroic fighting against the Turks, the Bulgars, the Austro-Germans, the Albanian blizzards, and again the Bulgars and the Austro-Germans there did not survive a very large number of the splendid veterans of Marshal Miic, and in Macedonia the ranks were filled by Yugoslav volunteers from the United States. Many of these Yugoslavs (over half of them Dalmatians and Bosnians) were included, in the army which entered Montenegro. The whole force at the time of the National Skuptina consisted of about 200 men, ten of whom were Serbs from the old kingdom--and if anyone maintains that 200 men could impose their will upon a population of 350,000 which has arms enough and is skilful in the use of arms, he makes it clear that he knows little of the Montenegrins.

THE a.s.sEMBLY WHICH DEPOSED HIM

The Podgorica Skuptina was not elected by these troops. No one will pretend that in the excitement of those days the voting was conducted in a calm and methodical fas.h.i.+on. Here and there a dead man was elected; the proceedings--though they were not faked, as in Nikita's time--were rough-and-ready. But if the deputies had been selected in a more haphazard fas.h.i.+on, say according to the first letter of their surnames, the result would have been identical--they would, with a crus.h.i.+ng majority, have deposed their King and voted for the merging of their country in the rest of Yugoslavia. If the former Skuptina had been convoked, as some people advocated--it would have most effectively nonplussed the pro-Nikita party here and elsewhere (it might even have silenced Mr. Ronald M'Neill, M.P., who a.s.serted[28] that this ”packed a.s.sembly” consisted of ”Serbian subjects and bought agents in about equal numbers”)--but then two-fifths of the country--those territories acquired in the Balkan War--would not have been represented. Observe, however, that the Skuptina in Nikita's time was for union with Serbia. Even then--although of the 76 deputies the king nominated 14, while the other 62, of course, were people whom he pretty well approved of--even then they had pa.s.sed resolutions in favour of an economic union, a common army and common representatives abroad. The Podgorica Parliament had 168 members, of whom 42 were from the new areas. The Const.i.tution did not provide for such an a.s.sembly; but Nikita's friends who clamoured for the Const.i.tution evidently had forgotten that under Articles 2 and 16 a king who deserts his country and people is declared to have forfeited his legal rights. Those foolish partisans who cried that it was monstrous not to wait until all the interned Montenegrins had come back from Austria and Hungary, may be reminded of Nikita's Red Cross parcels which these prisoners had refused to take. Moreover, certain of them were elected, after their arrival, as vacancies occurred, and they were also represented among the dozen deputies whom the Skuptina chose for the Belgrade Parliament. No disorders happened during the elections, the best available men were chosen--76 of them having enjoyed a university education. It is worthy of remark that while 20 of the Podgorica deputies had sat in Nikita's former parliaments, another 150 of these ex-deputies survive, and yet out of the total number of past and present deputies (_i.e._ over 300), only 15 declared for a kind of autonomy, but were in favour of Yugoslav union.

The Metropolitan of Cetinje, the Bishops and five of the six pre-war Premiers gave their unreserved support to the new regime. With them was the Queen's brother, the Voivoda Stephen Vukotic, a grand-looking personage who has remained all his life a poor man; he was questioned by General Franchet d'Esperey as to whether he had also voted against his brother-in-law. ”If I had seven heads and on each of them a crown,”

answered the Voivoda, ”I would give them all for the union of the Southern Slavs.” ... Where was the opposition to Yugoslavia? ”The Black Mountain,” said Nikita at Neuilly--”the Black Mountain, as well as her national King, has always pursued the same path, the only one leading to the realization of our sacred ideal--that of National Unity.” One might object that a national King should really not have written to his daughter Xenia on October 19, 1918, that he would propose a republic for all the Serbs and Yugoslavs, with the abdication of the two kings and the two dynasties. He added that the Serbs were not ripe for a republic, but that in advanced circles his suggestion would be enthusiastically received, and in a short time he would reap the benefit. ”That,” he wrote, ”is my impression--it may be that I am wrong--but I do not know what else I can do.” And a truly national King--but the world, as Sophocles remarked, is full of wonders, and nothing is more wonderful than man--a truly national King should not have supported those twenty Montenegrins who in the summer of 1919 a.s.sembled at the monastery of Decani with the design of establis.h.i.+ng a Bolevik republic. Before the Yugoslav troops could reach the spot these men were surrounded by Albanians and overpowered, so that another wild dream of the old intriguer was dissipated.... When Mr. Leiper, the _Morning Post's_ acute representative, was in Montenegro during the summer of 1920 he found only one person in three weeks who pined for the return of Nikita.

”Presently,” he says, ”we were accosted by an ancient, wild-looking 'pope,' with a face rugged and stormy as the crags among which he lived, and long, straggling hair tied in behind by an old leather boot-lace....

The talk turned to politics. My friend wailed over times and morals.

Food was scarce, the wicked flourished like green bay trees, honest folks were oppressed, starved, neglected; for example, his own self that sat before me--would I believe it?--after forty years' service he had not so much as attained the dignity of Archimandrate.... They were a rascal lot, those at present in power, ripe for hanging, every man-jack of them. And oh for the days of good King Nicholas, who would have given them short shrift!” Mr. Leiper subsequently learned that Nikita's panegyrist had spent his life in the wilds of Macedonia, where he acted as agent and decoy of the then Montenegrin Government. One murder, at least, for which he received a good sum of money, could be laid to his charge. Now he was living in retirement, hoping no doubt for better days, and meanwhile winked at by the tolerant authorities.

After the a.s.sembling of the Podgorica Parliament a proclamation was issued by the joyous Montenegrins at Cetinje. ”Montenegrins!” it began, ”the great and b.l.o.o.d.y fight of the most terrible world war is over!

Despotism has been smothered, freedom has come, right has triumphed....

Montenegrin arms and the heroic deeds of our Homeland have distinguished themselves for centuries. The fruits of these great deeds and colossal sacrifices our people must realize in a great and happy Yugoslavia....