VICTORY OR DEATH

Grey River Argus, 13 December 1912, Page 7

VICTORY OR DEATH

A SERVIAN/MOTHER. TWO SONS FOR .FREEDOM. "LET THESE ENGLISH SEE." I have been talking 1 to one of the fierce Servian patriots for whom there is no compromise possible — one of the war-makers : (writes Charles E. Hands, in the London Daily- Mail). . It was in a shop .in the Krai Milanskaju. the main thoroughfare of the new Belgrade, and the patriot was a woman,, the mother of a shopkeeper. An old woman, with a strong:, heavy, almost savage, broad Slav face. Her black eyes, blazed as she tallked im- 1 petuously. . "IF NOT VICTORY DO. NOT COME BACK." "You English,", she said, "wlv.u business is it of yours to tell us that we shall do this or we shall do that? What business is it for anyone— for England, for France, for Russia even, who is our friend— to say our Servia shall lie still and die? Better die fighting- than lie still and die, I tell you. Listen ! Two sons I haye — two sons — and I have sent them both to the | war. They are at Nish,. or yesterday they were air Nish. To-day who j knows? ' There has been fighting already. If they are dead I have no sons. But listen, you Englishmen, while I tell you what T said to them. I said, 'Go, and come back victorious, but if not with the victory, then do not come back. You hear me. If. not with victory, do not come back.' And. they will not. They have said so to me, their mother. If Servia has not victory, why should I have sons? There is nothing then for them to live, for. ' ■ f\ . "In Servaa, as we are, and as you English and French and. the others, would keep us, our lives are for nothing. If we make some business we must, give the profit to the Ausitrians on one side, to the Bulgarians on the other, to the Turks, "again, on still another side. What we grow, what we make; we must give, to someone "for what price they choose to pay. What we buy we must take from someone foi what price they choose to ask. SERVIA'S. HANDICAP. "In Bosnia, we "-should: make ■business with our people of our own blood I and our family 'are' of Bosnia— but the Austrians will. not. We should make business with our friends of Montenegro; but the Turks will not. To Salonica our way is stopped ; to the .Black Sea, again : and the Danube is nothing for us. Bulgaria has some place on the .sea, she has fought the Turks and has made victory, and now she becomes richer every day. I know, for I 'have a sister who is married in Bulgaria. She was so .poor that she came to me for everything once, but now she is so rich and "her two sons are so rich. Why Only, because Bulgaria does not waiit and wait and wait for you English and you French to give her something. Bulgaria has made her own -life. for herself.- and. my sister is rich and her sons are rich. Why, then, not we Servians While we wait and wait tor England and -France to bring us someithing, we wait for nothing but to die.. There is a better way for dying than to die waiting. ■ Tell your Englishmen that it is only Servia that can do anything for Servia. That is why I send my sons no- the' war, not to come back to' me except with the victory. For without victory what place is this for men?" . WORTHY TO BE GREAT. .A young officer in a brand-new uniform came into the shop— a pale, deli-rajbe-iookmg boy. "And you go also, then, my child, >; she said _to him, "though you are not strong?" "Yes," he said proudly, "at last they huye accepted me. 1 offer myself twice before — once as volunteer for the League of Deajth but they will riot take me, and again to a volunteer, regiment that again rejects me. But now the third time. 1 -am accepted and go tomorrow -to Nish." > ■■: "Go, then," said the fierce o'd woman; "it is not much that you can do, but you are -strong enough to die if there is not the victory. Go you fto let these English sefe- that Servia is I worthy to be great." I The old lady sat in her chair and, held a sort of a court while, with the assistance of a &oy and a girl or ; two, she made shift to look after the family business. There was in her case none of the, apprehension as to cost and consequence and none of the anxious expectation of interference by the Great Power's that --many- of the men v politicians show. The women in Belgrade, are very enthusiastic Servians. They- know that their li-ttle country and their little' capital are poor and

[.starved, and that their lives, are without the opportunities of domestic comfort, elegvince, and luxury that the women of other nations enjoy. ; THE OPEN ROAD TO THE SEA. I heard similar sentiments uttered ; by a bank official, though he" did not express himself with .the old lady's furious energy. .'.-.' • "It is so strange to me," he said, ''that you English of all people do not realise how essentially necessary to -a nation is the sea. Without the sea no people can live. Look at the map; On every side there arc political barriers which shut us off from the sea. It is true we are poor little people, and our idea of going- -to war may seem to you a ridiculous impertinence. . -. ■• But give •us at least the credit of this. We are doing our .best. Every, marl thajt is available and every penny we can raise goes to the endeavour. Think of that. Every Servran capable of bearing, arms is going out -to fight. Mighty England has ' never clone anything greater 'than, that, This little, poor country has two hundred thousand men in the field. That' is not so ridiculous, is it That is no laughing matter. It is a. national effort that must, be respected, that your "history has not surpassed. : ;■.;•■. "And for what cause do we fight 1 do not > talk to you ' of massacres ; I speak" to you only of freedom, the freedom of our Servian people. Do you in England, I Avonder, realise who the Servian people, are? Listen to this Here in Belgrade you shall speak a message in Servian, to a Servian, and send him with it in any direction^ towards the sea— remember Wiat I say towards the sea: Arid. this man, when 'he has carried' the message as far as possible, shall speak r that Servian message to any man of a village ,who shall carry it another : stage anti >in turn speak 'the same message to another man of ■ another- village, anq^ so on from st-age to stage until it comes to the sea— observe: onoe moFe, to the sea. From one village to another all the way from Belgrade to" the sea this me.* sage shall carry. , .. " .■ ; - : ' "And why? Because by Bosnia and by Herzegovina, by the Sanjak of Novibazar, by Montenegro, -trie' people of the" villages are Servians of our own race, of the same blood, the. same language, the same religion— all Servians. ■Do you know thajt in- all Europe you cannot find a nation that is homogeneous like the Servian people? EUROPE'S SUPPRESSION; * 'And yet we are hot a nation. . From Belgrade to the sea the people are Servian, -and yejt ServFa is cut off from the sea. It is not land that we want, it is access to- the sea. Without the sea (there is no freedom for a nation, no possibiltiy of progress, no hope for industry. To keep your- home heaUhy; you must have windows that open. For 'a healthy nation you must have a window opening to the fresh air of ■ freedom that comes only from /the sea. ; You English ought to "know. that. But the Turks and the Austrians have takei our. sea and our freedom. If we had a way open' to the sea pur countrwy is capable of progress- and prosperity. We have resources to develop, great mineral and agricultural possibilities. But without the sea, what can we produce? A few prunes; a -few pigs Is it likely that we should be content to be prisoners when thp chance has come to us to be free? Europe must recognise that we are right. We have, exhausted, ourselves in fighting Europe's" battle jagainst the Turk' and Europe- has taken advantage of out exhaustion to. oppress us. Now you say to us, "Keep 1 quiet, be patient; the Turk is: dovhg ,'h'is best to reform himself; all will-be well in the course of time.' But we know the Turk ; be is unreformable. And all .the while that we are waiting- Europe is preparing to destroy us eternally; We" would rather, infinitely rather, be conquered by the Turks than absorbed by the Austrians. But we mean to be free, and the time has come. \Vhat can Europe do? The conscience, of all the rations ivould cry ouit against the oppression of a people ivho had made the sacrifices we are making fox the principle of Freedom." ■ ," . . And so they talk, ordinary Servian people of all classes. They long 1 for ; a new Servia with its own clear read to the freedom of the sea. The romantic and excitable paltriots of the big cafes, where they play 'cards in the morning, talk of course, with more romance and excitment in. their politics They show, maps of nhe old extinct Servian empire and have a map of the new Servia which they to create and which includes' most of the" Adriatic coast and a good- slice of Bulgaria. But the" sober an& matter-of-fact Servians see nothing impracti-, able or unreasonable.mi the ambitionto restore to Servian rule the, Servians of Old Servia (that the Turks call Novibaßir and to get their way to the sea before the Austrians. cut them off. j "Once we are a tthe sea." .they say, "we are close 'to England -and England will understand us and sympathise." •'.". ;'" .'.' . .-. ■ ■'.: ' ARMED BANDITS. • NEW MEXICO INVADED. NEVv" YORK,. Nov.; 30. A message from Albuquerque says •that a band of Mexicans, well mounted and heavily armed, has invaded New Mexico, and is advancing in the direction .pf the towns of Monticello, Fairviewand Ouchillo. Armed posses arc being formed throughout the country, to resist the invasion, -and a battle is expected. CAPITAL AND LABOUR. I IMPORTANT V : :S; 'COMMISSION. !,,,. „,' . .'■ .'••;, NEW- YORK, Nov. 30; . • /Mr. Taft. is~expected to determine the. personnel cf the; Industrial: Commission s'hprtly.. ,' ' . . , . He regards the, commission as one of the most -important authorised by -Congress iff-Teceht years. ■' It will',examine the Whole- question of capital and labour, v ,'V 1 ''.■-■'■ : -- r '•'." '■'"'. : v 4"lundreds. of, lianics have ; been sugv gested, -and ouj-pf; these nine ,will be s.el'ecied, > three : employers, three employees and 'three- Independent,