SERVIAN PATRIOTISM

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1914, Page 4

SERVIAN PATRIOTISM

In "Letters from the Near East," published shortly after the late Balkan war, Mr. Maurice Baring wrote thus of the Servians : "You have only got to be a day in Servia to realise the spirit of the people. They aro lull of a concentrated fire of patriotism. The war to them is a question of- life and death, and they regard theiF access to the sea as a question of life and death for their country. They have been the driving power in this war. They have had to mako the greater sacrifices, and the part they have played has certainly not yet been fully realised or appreciated. The Servians are less reserved than the Bulgarians, but they have the same singleness of purpose and tlie same power of cleaving fast to one great idea. . . While I was at Uskub the. campaign started in the press complaining of Seivian barbarities, mossacres, otc. I diii not come across any direct or reliable evidence of any such thing. . . It, i° probably true that- irregular bands w isolated units of soldiers on both side? did each other the maximum of liar in in* the most disagreeable way possible. . . The extermination of a village by a band which was in a position to exterminate has from time immemorial been a recognised* move in the code of Balkan warfare.' 1