MONTENEGRO READY FOR WAR.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10103, 22 March 1909, Page 4

MONTENEGRO READY FOR WAR.

(New York Sun Correspondent.) Cattaro, January 7.—Though this Austrian "port: has a, population perhaps ■ a dozen times as large as thafc of Cettinje, the little Montenegrin capital can boast what this place cannot, a clean, and comfortable hotel. There is a reason for the existence of a hotel at Cettinje. > Until a few years ago diplomatic representatives accredited to 'the Montenegrin court were in the habit of residing at Raauas, where many comforts are to | be had'; but Prince Nicholas did not like the diplomatists to live in Austria and visit him only when some diplomatic business brought them, so he caused to te established a European hotel. The hotel is without competition, and consequently prices are high and waiters as little civil as in America. Nevertheless one is grateful to the hotel and to Prince Nicholas j for providing a good dinner in a town of "500 houses." Only five minutes' walk from the hotel is the palace of the Prince. As one passes down the main Toad, which the Montenesrins are pleased to call a street, it is the custom to srlance down the palace street, a broad side'road, to see if the Prince or any of the young Princes are walking up and down. 'The palace street is usually left <o the Royal Family, that is to say no one loiters nearer than the corners at either end. This is net because the Imperial Guard makes people move on, but as an act of courtesy. The Montenegrins wait in numbers, however, around the corners, for Prince Mirko comes out for a stroll every bright day and Prince Nicholas often sits in a chair at the top of the steps and 6ends word around the corner that he- wants to see whoever is there. Some of the Montenegrins take off their caps as coon as they come in sight of the Prince, and some of them do not uncover till they_ berrin to speak to him. At these receptions any man may speak, though he is not allowed to interrupt someone else or to do all tho talking.

It is especially interesting to attend one of these meetings—as I did the other morning after breakfast—now while the country generally feels that there might be war with Austria-Hungary. The captain of some village military company will make an appeal for the gift of a flag, saying that his men will fight better under a banner given them by the Prince himself. The 'tall peasant stands bareheaded, with his right hand upon the pistol in his belt; the baggy blue trousers, reachinir to his knees, and the sleeveless, jacket of red, both show beneath an open overcoat —the Montenegrins all wear European overcoats, but no other Western article of apparel except boot 6. An Albanian subject, a Mohammedan in lons, white trousers, tight fitting below the" knee and braided with black bands, wears his red fez in the royal presence, because, according to his light, to remove the fez would be an insult. Salaaming low, touching with the back of his hand first the earth, then his lies and forebend, he begins- an appeal for ritles, explaining that he can muster a band cf forty volunteers. Another peasant, knowing "no better, asks when the war will bo declared.

The old Prince is accustomed to such questions as this, and he does not lack the diplomatic gift. His reply, while satisfying the peasant, docs not offend the Austrian' Minister, whose dragoman may he in the crowd, or at any rate finds out before many hours what advice his Highness has been pleased to give the people. Tho Prince replies that- war is a terrible thing and that he hopes there will be none, but- that, they, the people and he, are Montenegrins, and if driven tp war thev will fight as becomes Montenegrins. ••It is my will." the Prince might say, "that no shot- shall be fired across the frontier unless war is declared. We must- prove that- the charge that Montenegrins are lawless is a- calumny." Vv'hen a man has made his speech and "ot his answer it is the custom for him to mount the steps and kiss the hand of the Prince. Some of the peasants go down on their knees and kiss his feet. The Prince himself wears the native costume and carries a long revolver in his belt. He bears himself like one of the oeople, and the neoplo bear themselves like the Prince, for they are all Montenegrins. In si_'ht of the palace, about a- hundred yards away, is the low, stable-like prison, in front of which, in the open street, sits a guard of two men, while prisoners with heavy chains from hip to ankle stroll up and clown in pairs, conversing while they take, their daily exercise. Passers-by do not stop to gaze at them, nor do the prisoners seem ashamed. Perhaps the crime of those in chains is the continuing of tiome bleed feud, which, though severely punished in these days, was "until recent- years a thing a- man would not be ashamed to do. There used to be almost continual fighting with the Albanians of Turkey because they anu the Montenegrins in turn each systematically raided the other, and these aggressions brought about- ware between" the two countries periodically. Finally they agreed to stop fighting, and on an appointed day they met on the banks of a river, and- the Albanians and the Montenegrins, one by one till all had uiveii the pledge, came forward simultaneously to opposite sides of the stream and cast- in each a stone in token that his enmity was washed away for ever. I attended a sitting of the Skunstchina, or Parliament, of this curious little country, it is held in the theatre, the tiniest of theatres. Standing on tho floor, one of tho tall Deputies could shake hands with the representatives of the Powers who sometimes grace the boxes in the first gallery. The stage is not more than, twenty ■feet wide. Here on the stage aro the chair and desk of the President, and on either side in front of him the table of the clerk and that of the stenographer. The latter is a- Catholic priest- in robes, whose small congregation is unable to support him.

Among the Deputies on the floor, about forty in number, are several Orthodox (Oreek Church) priests. The members are all in national costume, except one Mohammedan, who wears the Turkish dress. One vain old. fellow wears a breastplate of worked silver. In front of each man on his little desk are a pad 1 of scribbling paper and a pencil. Most of the Deputies carry revolvers, though some few, those who realise no doubt that- their tempers arc bad, have left their revolvers outside, hung up with their overcoats, and umbrellas. It has been the custom for Mohammedans to pay the military tax instead of serving in the army, but since the trouble with Austria, in which tho Mohammedan and Serb are on one side, arms have been distributed as well to Albanians and Turks, who form a small part of the Dopulation. The military system of this poor country, which would hardly be able to supply its men with arms except for rifts from cympathetic Russia, is somewhat primitive. Between the ages of 16 and 17 each boy receives a gun, a- revolver, a sabre, and a number of cartridges.

According to custom ho must always wear the revolver ; a farm of punishment for minor offences against the law is to relieve him of the weapon for a time, audit is a disgrace to be seen without it. A man may not, according to military order, no a distance of more than two hours' walk from home without his gun and cartridge belt. He must account to his officer for every cartridge given him by the War Department. At the age of 25 the young.man goes for four months to one of the larire towns where there are barracks, and there r-e receives a course of instruction in the art of war. Those who prove to be the best nupils and desire to become officers may spend a year and a half longer at the military school. The Montenegrin custom of carrying arms at all times is probably a. natural result of conditions under which the nation lived until a quarter of a century ago.. They were the only people of the Balkans who were able to maintain their independence against tho power of- the Turk when he invaded Europe 500 years ago in an effort to conquer the world 1 for Mohammed. The Montenegrin wears to-day a border of black silk around- his red cap as mourning for Kossovo, the famous battle in which the nower of Christendom in southeastern Europe was broken. Five gold circles in the. corner of the. cap's red field denote the five centimes the country has fought for and kept her liberty. It was the flower of the Serb race that came to these barren rocks after Kossovo and held them against all enemies, no matter what their numbers. One of the early" Princes lacked the. martial spirit necessary for a Montenegrin ruler., and with the consent of the people he left the country to live a peaceful familv life jn "Europe." His place as head of the people was handed over to the Bishop, the man next in authority and esteem. This is how the country came to

be. ruled .until .fifty years ago. by a Vladika, or Prince Bishop. The yiadika had always to remain unmarried and the crown descended to a nephew, who went into the church in bis •youth. But when Danilo 11. came to be Vladika.in 1851,-, one of ..his first acts in ofSce r was =to •'separate again-. the : place- of prince from that of ' for Danilo knew a lady whom he desired to make a princess. Danilo died without male offspring and the throne came in the old order to the ■present ruler, a son of his brother. Nicholas has T many children; one daughter is the Queen of Italy; another, were she alive,' would' be Queen of Servia; one or two are married into the Royal Family o£ Russia. And he has also several sons. Prince Nicholas is personally known and respected all over Europe, and his influence at the courts of Rome and St. Petersburg is not small. In 1876 the Montenegrins fought their last war with the lurks, helping to liberate the Bosnians and Herzegovinians, fellow Serbs. But Austria-Hungary would not permit the formation of a." strong Serb State as a barrier between herself and Turkey, and at the Congress of Berlin she exacted tho right to administer the ■laws, in these provinces as well as to occupy with troops the Saud.jak of Novibazaar, Turkish territory, which divides

■Servia and Montenegro. The dual monarchy has now broken the Berlin treaty by formally annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina, and all the Serbs, those of the provinces, and the Servians and Montenegrins, are at one in the purpose of; preventing this arbitrary act which blights their' ambition. Everywhere the Serbs say that if the Powers recognise the annexation they will organise their comparatively feeble forces into .guerrilla bands and fight the army of Austria. They believe that in their mountains they can keep up the struggle for at least a year. If they can do "this, they believe that one of two things must happen; the first is that tho Russian nation, with its sympathy, for them as Slavs of the Orthodox Church, must come to~ their assistance; the other is the breaking up under tho strain of Austria-Hungary, an empire composed of conilicting elements. But , should the Serbs be forced to submit to the -will of the House of Hapsburg, then at least they will all be united, waiting as a whole for the opportunity to break from their conqueror. The Servians, can put about 2CO,GGO soldiers in the field: tho Montenegrins claim to have 40,000 men, besides arms for 40,000 Bosnians who are not permitted under Austrian rule to possess them. As the population of Montenegro is less than 3000,000 people, this number of fighting men is proportionately larger than that oi other countries, which usually count ten per cent, of all inhabitants as available for the army. The difference in conditions in Montenegro and elsewhere accounts for this increased percentage. Here younger -men and older men than fight elsewhere are called upon to carry arms, and the country needs no men at home to labor, for the women have always hewed the wood and ploughed the fields. At one of the recent street receptions of Prince Nicholas some women appeared to ask if it were true that they were not to be allowed to do transport work in the war and load the rifles, as they used to do in the old wars against the Turks. When the big guns were recently moved up the Loftchen, the nigh mountain which dominates the Bocea di Cattaro, the women had not been called upon to help, and the rumor got about that they were to take no part in the war. On the morning that I planned to descend from Cettiiije to Cattaro, that is to ;ro back over the road by which I had come from the Austrian port into Montenegro, I was told that Prince Nicholas, who had been indisposed for a fcw days, was now well again and would give me an audience. I was not to be received as a newspaper correspondent, but as a private gentleman ; in other words, I was not to have an interview. In order to meet the Prince I deferred my departure till midday, an. hour after that appointed by the Prince. Of course my coachman fussed- and complained that ho had already harnessed his horses, but I knew that his chief object in protesting w;ts to procure extra compensation. Cabmen the world over. East and West, are of a, fraternity hostile to the rest of humanity. On the road over the mountain we found the peasantry-at one place killing sheep. They were slaughtering a greater number than tho village could devour in many days, and we asked the reason. They answered, beaming, that the meat was for the war; they were going to smoke and dry it, they said. In the Custom-house here in Cattaro, where our baggage was examined, we met four tall fellows wearing broad brimmed hats and coats with shoulders padded after the American fashion. They were Montenegrins who had been out mining in California. I am told that hundreds of them have passed through here, drawn back from America by the rumors of war. The Austrian gendarmes searched their pockets and took from.them their revolvers. ''That's nothing," said one of the Montenegrins to me, "the Prince has got plenty more up the mountains."