THE PIRATE POET.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 242, 9 October 1920, Page 17

THE PIRATE POET.

t i IN HIS "HOLOCAUST CITY." • A PICTURE OF FIUME TO-DAY. The latest exploit of the Pirate Port, reported a few ir.ccks ago, teas the seizure 6.V his agents of a ship laden with food from South America for Mediterranean ports. A number of his men were secreted mi board, and when the vessel was off Messina they appeared, aud by ar m .ed force compelled the captain 1o make for ■ Fiumc. where the cargo was unloaded. Habriel d'Anminzio is a past master of nick-names, says Herbert Vivian, writing j from Fiu-me to the -'Pall Mall Gazette" in ■July. He has rechristened his suppr haunt the Ornithorhyncus; his r?*tiui-l 'rant and his legiona.-ies are Tronhcads; I cherry brandy is "blood of the Morlacch:,' , or ancient Illyrians; iFiumc is the "holo"^ ■ chi st city." At present it certa : hlj,conveys ,io ; m----rreesion of sacrifice. T see people dancing • aii night in the chief square, •nriv.vorkf"-, i.nd hundreds of Chines:; lantern* in tl.c - harbour; there are theatre* a id m:csio ' halls, military sports, btimiurt*, :;iml i public receptions of deputations from :il! parts of Italy; I fare sumptuously every. day in the gardens of the lronhead R',- ,- ---1 taurant on fresh caviar, scampi (;he ' famous fish of the Quarrero), luscious! • fruits, and the best Hungarian 1 since the seizure of a tram , ) steamer ; : bread costs one-third of its price outside; I the guaranteed Finnic corona is worth ! two 'or three times that of Austria or > Dalmatia. ' Almost the only thing lacking is cloth, and the consequence is that thoj ' legionaries are clad in keeping with the! • comic opera surroundings. The livki'-st' , wear bright terr.i-eotta khaki, suggestive] of window blinds, a legacy of expelled j ' /French Annamites, but the non-uniforms • ! include sailcloth, sailors' material?,! I sporting tweeds, striped and speckled, :' cotton, almost everything except char-| ■ mouse; the breeches are so wide that. ■ they could stow away an infinity of loot, or at least a week's rations. Pome. , of the tunics are like overcoats, others !l:ke small boys' jackets. Some have bare 1 necks, like young ladies at a ball. Nearly Jail grow their hair like Polish pianists; J some are bare-headed, others have tin ; helmete or cocks' feathers. but the [' majority poise the black Arditi fez aero- ' batically at the very back of their heads i with a long black tassel waggling in the breeze. I A FIRST IMPRESSION. My first glimpse of the Commandant i was at the festival of the bcrsa-glieri in •! a sort of hollow amphitheatre near the j frontier of his little realm. He looked j I very email, dignified, defiant, pictur- ; ' esque, with his plumed hat, standing as | I, though about to receive a charge ot | > cavalry. When he removed his hut to] pronounce winged words amid a religious j hush, he was grim, bald, madly inspired- ( "All mad people come to Fiume," sand j one of my boon companions without : knowledge of my antecedents, and ' d'Annunzio certainly exhibits mystical vagaries. But he is slrrewd and fore- '! seeing. Who eke could have carried out '.his preposterous freak? When the I Italians w-ere turned out of Fiume, he j leaped into a car, tore to meet them, j picked soldiers, expelled allies, squelched ' j the League of Nations, and has remained 'I as dictator ever since. This is all <luc Ito magnetic charm. He hypnotises hie I crowds. He has odd little irresistible ; appeals to the gallery. To-day, for in- ' stance, he received an appeal from a soldier sentenced to a year's imprisonJ ment for a breach of discipline. His girl ' i expected a baby any day, and he wanted !i to marry her. There was no hesitation ! ' about a free pardon and a wedding pre--5 ■ sent, and the gaolere all attended the : j nuptials, and it all read very well in the 1 "Vedetta d'ltalia." 1 This little realm (smaller than San Marino, bigger than Monaco, as you are dncessantly reminded) is, above all, ; journalistic. Half the palace is filled l with typists and pamphleteers and men - with rubber stamps; every visitor is plied with leaflets overflowing with , prose poetry; the Commandant is mii accessible only because he must compose 5 poetic prose. And he knows the value of r "answers to correspondents." Ever}' r hour that he can Bnatch from an orgy at i the Ornithorhyncus or a public harangue .' is devoted to autographic acknowledg- - • ment of compliments from unknown . j barbers and babies and chambermaids 5 in Valparaiso or Catania. '■ WILL HE WIN? 1 He knows how to make himself precious by aloofness; at the same time, he wins hearts by lying on thousands at a 1 • picnic with his death-and-glory boys, ' sharing their simple rations and joining :in their songs. He is not a very nice I man, his most brilliant speeches are I stained with coarseness and blasphemy, ' I but he is eimple and natural and well- ' beloved. ■" I I love Italy, and with her every ! ' triumph over all her insidious enemies, ' j but I share the hesitation of Italians ' • about the practical patriotism of i d'Annunzio's melodrama. That can be ' I proved only by success, and I have a " i sneaking belief that he is winning. At '. the worst, he compares favourably with k Garibaldi. His soldiers have adopted a mediaeval 1 Florentine cheer, the only foreign 1 comparable with our hip-hip-hurrah, a cheer that he discovered in some 1 archive or missal, a cheer that now '.echoes from every wall in Fiume: "Eja, j eja, eja, alala!" ! l _— ——— ——