TRAGEDY OF SERVIA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLII, Issue 12823, 15 April 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

TRAGEDY OF SERVIA.

IU Masii.ui:..:: Harden.)

11 .1 double .-tvit;u <>t >' , m connected lower Danube 'with the Adriatic array, forced to retreat "by :iov. t rnil superiority ot invade^-, :ti have found it less difficult to ;-.-.- itself by reaching a territory with- ■: .-a-v reach of willing aid from It was nearly eight years ago that ; :ly. through Signor Tittoni, sng- . -ted the construction of the Danube- . Iriatic railway. But hardly had ; 'n-itch bankers shrewdly obtained Tnr- • •\ 's permission to begin the enterprise en Albania was, shaken by terrific .-htinz which made engineering work nos.thie. Then came tbe first and -°n:td Balkan wars, and Albania was id.- independent from Turkey; where>n the Ambassadors' conference at ; ridon resolved that the railway ild ho international and neutral. only—it was "not constructed, s^. s,> the poor Serbian warriors pushed . .dily back*'by the armies of two : .u Powers and the Bulgarian forces, i.- forced to climb steep mountains :.-! :.> leave guns, ammnnition and i.plies behind in order to preserve their fatherland an army—the | •■ink nt an army. And their King would have been ~|.v it he could have _ crawled into ;'n:i.- in the little land "of his fafheri.iw. That his fate should ever ,-.- upon the will of Xicholas, ruler the Montenegrins. Peter Kara i i-evich (grandson of the "Black ..i:_e) hati certainly never dreamed •. he was fetched from Geneva to Ktns£ at Belgrade. i >n the 2~th day of November, 1880, ■ Montenegrins made their triuni;.'.:int -■Jttry into the Adriatic seaport fitrlcigno, opened to them by the 'li.rl--.-. Where'once 'Byzantium, then V.-nice, and for the subsequent three . nruries the Sultan reigned there now i ukled over the red field upon which \!..uteitegro"s double eagle spreads its ..i-. i-ry winy.-*, the golden cross in the • iilisiht, the golden crown of the free » iri.-tian prince. And a* Ipr Nicholas-! At 39 he had , i.-uptcd lib throne fssr twenty years. i- -till his countrymen idolised him . . -.i vontbiul hero." they said, - -i ill" surely lead us out of porerty jr.. I pressure; he can one day be to :..• Tzrna Gora what in the fourteenth , ,iiturv Stephen Piwlian, the Czar of l! ~erb* and Greeks-, was to the south -!:ivir hope.* 1 - For had he not already ...•iiieved much? In Paris as a-.mere boy, a student . -, the science hi war, he had won the i.niey of Lotus Napoleon, which proved value' to him. when, as a youth of .1 he aided the uprising engineered -.-; the Hcrzegovininn locksmith Lucas \\ ukaSovitch. He had made possible ; |; alliance oR the two Serbian States hv deciding to place his army and him-..-If under the command of Michael Obi, nnvich. the bold Serbian ruler, and, .i r.eressary, to' surrender even his , r.i\vn to Michael, who had delivered ;'r.. -»it of Serbia form the ignominy . ■ die Turkish yoke. In the Dnna Pass, at Antivari and at |) ikiiitto he'had defeated the Ottoman .irmv. He had at last satisfied the !• of his people for access to the ..a. And in St. Petersburg he bad ,-.';r-hone the.radiance of the house of U' i. novich. then paling under Milan. All this in. twenty years. Could not :ru- .amo Xicholas achieve much more? I'l.iild he not bring about the nnificar.ii ot the Serbs, of which he dreamed ... a votlth? I tiiis this bold and stately rtdcr rose •r. the legend of the southern Slavs r, lie the haloed hero of those hungerr._ tor greatness sweeping into the inlimre. and Xicholas understood well r« rr> establish himself in the national

!'i>n;iil«'ii«;e. Nicholas strove to copy the illus-. example «1 his great-uncle, the «vonif Peter Petrovitch Xjegosh. In ,- Paris of the Second Empire he had ui-lic siimpse* of the literary trade; nth his patriotic zeal, a tuneful verse, in »tiVottve stanza could not help hut tir.il applansc.. He dared it; his song _i..ts. the sea over which there llutT.r- now at lost in the morning wind h. r.ci standard with the white cross, -nvt- the mountains over whose. •■rv-t- led the road to the future of v. (inuter Serbia! He proceeded to _i ■■■>■• people a national hymn and a .■•;uina:il drama. Hero, poet and fox. Wj> it not worthy of high praise iiit lie conquered the firmly locked i,ire of Alexander 111., who loudly [.ivrlaimed him his best (not. as too :,;,«!. distorting translators have put li- "uniqnO friend-* Was it not . vvdlinglv clever of him to represent liiiN.h wholly as the creature and lat.tul attmirer of Russia, since Milan iiV.vnnvtch had tnrnetl Jo Austria's

Mii.-rw. the daughter of the impovcr--;.il IVter Vukotitch, bore liiin six ini.ln n. Such blessing must boar in;,i. ~r t.> the father, to the fatherland. Inn ><-s Zorka was married to the SVm:ui heir apparent, Peter Kara i;.-.)-.'v-ireb. ililitza to the Russian \-nrA Duke Peter Nikolalevitch, -ir.l ;it Br»t to George Dake oF I.."i< -licenberg, then to the Grand Dnke Nicholas Nikalaiovitch, Helena even, to :kr kalian Crown Prince Victor Emm.ir.tiHl; Prince Alirko fetched his betr ink from the-Houseof Obrcnorich, mi oufv Danilo, the heir apparent, :;...'. ;.> concent himself with the lnstre- !.■■.-. betrothal to Princess. Jntta of M ■ kicnburg-Strelitz. Ni !.ob» held strong trumps in life :.n:i. : Russia, the Slavic sentiment. lu! ttnlv's support. Should one day :::■- throne of Alexander Obrcnovitch v ,-,s»»red linn, certainly no Power ■'"■-. liii object. Here is where Nicholas made i. -calculation in liis programme. V ;i.uHuncarv had had 100 much :vr and bother with the Omladina, ! Voting Serb Federations (which -.!■•■■ ; i Nicholas their Messiah), to wish m i►• Nicholas reign in Cettinje and : Hri-rade and then secretly fan the <'. .;->• .it the Great Serbia dreams. !; -.. h- western Balkans, i.e., in Ansimmediate sphere of interest, a . , i b blindly devoted to the Rtis- - (Hi Albania's border the doubly ■■■•-. r:nt father-in-law of an Italian K: neither Vienna nor Budapest i! allow such n combination. The 1'..: .'.'rbian agitation against Haps- '"-.:■. \ domination would be strcngth- :. truly's ambition in the direction of Al ni.i favored, and the already con>..Tinted annexation of'the Balkan ■'.•.r..i:,- ( >s by Francis Joseph would be ■i le-rabtv blocked. ' • Wit:her Golnchowsky signalled to ■'■'■ IMgrade conspirators, or whether lutcied no admonition to realise expediency of the hour, ncverthe:ht> fact is that when after Atex- • r .!', nssnssinntion the Skupshtina t.v choose a new King, not- a single nas cast for Nicholas, none for -■n Mirko. Instead they chose >'•"-■ Kara Gcorgevich, Nicholas' son-

To hope of a'lifetime bad died/and x lis. now £J>, was soon to meet i ru'ir disillusion. "So onr roas-

iwi's the whisper around the !l . .Mountains since 1903, '"is not, as ( .-Iways thought, the national nero ■ ! iur bv all Serbian brethren?" Mik.v. whom a true Serbian woman r;■•-. r:c«'d with a strong boy and who :i: all crises championed the- Great ■:■' an dream, was th© net of the na- :. which believed of him that he

U not fight for their sacred canse *'■'■'■: zonule and pen alone. . i' i the old falcon's eye aim that> Did he hone this yonth might • '»ed. as Serbian King recognised • Kiirope. in achieving" what the half-' -:i still menaced b? the Turkish >■"••--• had tailed to do? i .! he not reflect that for \icnna s,'vhian kingdoms were—and are—v ranrcnient, less dangerous, than Was he too already intoxicated :';:p siHv dream that !Austria-Hun- -•:■' limped toward the road at the

. Manr The armies of Germany, Aus-••-Hungary, and. Bulgaria sweep v;h the Serbian domain; Rouma;ind Greece refuse assistance to Evaded kingdom; General Sarraii Tut. tv-ith his rari-colored, insuffi- '■•'. t'otcw. stem the tide that is flood- -: t'i«« land: refugee, torn and tor- ■■■■ <i in bodv and soul, Peter stands r. Nicholas. Sajrs Peter: Tii.- misery of bur brethren eats '<- or heart. Was ft a crime thai ■-ok" the crown from the hands of '■ officers, who had had tho courage -ink the dagger into the" n>a*pd '■i*f of a lunatic and a court Bar-

iigjr That an Obrcnovich, deep iu debt to Austria, feeding on the favor of Vienna, was succeeded by an independent dynasty conscious of its will to ireedom? * * •'I wanted rest and peace; a. governmental system, the advantages of which my study of western countries, in the years of my exile, had taught me. 3ly people wanted an outlet to tho seas. Yet this surely not immodest* desire was beyond the reach of realisation; a thousand intrigues lay in its way. ■> '"That this desire miscarried, that in tbe empire of the Emperor - and King who from his proud castle governs more* Serbs than both of us, yon .and I, together, wild hotheads and scatterbrnins, worked for a quick, a forcible unification of all those .belonging" to tbe same race; that even within our own borders righteous scorn drove young blood into the whirl; were these things our faults h I "Has- the, world not always, in all zones, witnessed assassinations, successful and not, wherever parts of one nation remonstrated against complete dissolution, complete racial extinction, remonstrated because it was shaken by the storm.of yearning for unity? Was it our fault,* our crime, that in an Austrian city, under the nose of the Austrian -police, two Austria us (one or whom was allowed to visit in Belgrade only on the strength of ' good testimonials ' from Austria) murdered the* Archduke, heir apparent of Austria? "If that was our fault, our guilt, then Staufiachcr was responsible for Wilhclni Tell's deed; Victor Emmanuel for Oberdank's plan. There was no thread—not the thinnest—that could connect the assassins with the sober men of my Government who worked for their country, leading but a snadow of existence, so scarce was everything. "A weapon used by the assassins fame from a workshop in Serbia? That proves nothing, for hundreds, thousands, had taken with them such ha ml grenades as souvcuirs of the war.

•'After two years of hard lighting much had been gained; a great work was before us. We were grateful that Austria's intention to war on us in the autumn of J913 had been frustrated by San Giuliano and Giolitti; we thought of no new struggles and had no cause to see in Francis Ferdinand and his Czech wife new foes of the Slavic cause. We desired an honorable understanding with Austria-Hun-gary, closer commercial bonds with Gcriuanv; alrcadv we had ordered in the latter country tiQ,QOO,<)9O' marks wortJi, of railway material—when, like a thunderbolt, came the ultimatum. '"You know how deeply Petrograd and London had humiliated us; you yourself had found—so your daughters say—tbat J humbled myself too much by granting eleven-twelfths of what had been demanded of mo, and had left the last twelfth to the goodwill of the Great Powers.

"Cruel necessity, father! But- withal we had a right to count upon assistance, first of all from Russia, after Xicholas' telegram! We were left alone.

"In the third and fourth year of war: A peasant .nation of scarcely -1.000.0M0 heads. The great victory aver Potiorek's army, Putnik's masterstroke, was more than we could have hoped /or. The nnniher of prisoners, the more than abundant booty, and the rertainty of a period of- recuperation—these things made lis breathe easier. "Not for long. In the wake of the war camp terrible epidemics. True, also many remedial .supplies, and the tokens of friendship from foreign" lands. All allies and the Americans sent us money, medicines, clothes, Ir.ciistiilfs. agricultural instruments, seeds, machines weapons, guns anu munitions, automobiles, aeroplanes, surgeons, nurses, tfchiiieiaiis.' "But we only-had 220.MJ0 able men. and with these we had io guard; a frontsuch as France guards with six times as many soldiers in the west. To weaken our line* >till further in, order to relieve the Kiisi-ians by an attack on tup lian.it or byruiia : sucli'a..suggestion I'litnik's soldier conscience was loreeti" to reject. His rejection caused bad blood aura-id.

"Among us also bad blood was made by the fact that England had staked everything on the Bulgarian card; that she wanted to extort Macedonian from us, Kavnla Irom tho Greeks. "A Balkan alliance against Bulgaria could have been brought about. .The intention, however, of aggrandising Bulgaria was bound to anger not- only yen and myself hut Bucharest and Athens as well' "•Since January we knew, not- solely from the notes of 31. Venizelos, what was coming—overflooding of onr soil by Aiistro-German troops ami Bulgaria's swinging over to the enemy's side. "Alas! London remained unshaken 'in her trust in Sofia. •If this trust fails. 2 so wc were told, 'then you will have, on the strength of your treaties, Greece and Jioumania as allies.'

"The ancient enemy, for whom Serbian blood had two years before conquered Adrianople, now joined -hands with two great Powers and: swept down npon us. We wero exhausted by three wars, epidemics and misery! "Wavering timidity on our part at this junctnre would hare outraged our ancestors even in their graves, would have deprived us of the brother love of your mountain falcons. '•But no one wavered. You have read the last speeches which the Skupshtina heard in Nishl- Jn their sombre determination to pay the most painful sacrifices, their sober readiness lor death, these speeches were well worthy of an Achilles, of a Dante. "Fourfold superiority coming from three sides with all the giant machines of destruction rolls into and over our poor country. Every able-bodied old man, everv woman is used to work in the field, and the tenderest youths take to arms. From the sick room, frpin praver at the grave of . the Kara ucorgevksh I hurry to the front, crawl —as in the previous winter —into the trench, emaciated, worn out, rheumatic cripple that I am, in mud and steam, I use my rifle, charge on the enemy; am unable, however, to fire my men 10 victorious storm as once'at- Ruduik. , - i 'Mv army melted away, the triple onrush of the foe was too powerful, we were forced to retreat. For every inch of our sacred soil wo fought asit for a pawji of honor. In vain. The euemv needed more time than he hart calculated; bnt the destructive onrush of his masses could not be stemmed. -We remained alone. And many a hand formed fist and rose in scorn :i«;iinst the Quadruple Entente, which let us bleed to death.. We have cause for complaint.. Well into tho last weeks of November Ave'had been told, hundreds of times, that the FrancoBritish army will quickly fight its way through from Salonica to join ours; a Russian army will come down through Itqumaria, an Italian force from Albania !

"Nothing came. ' '•And the fact that Italy's greed tor Dalmatia and other Slav territory worf fed by the Entente remains, for u.-, for both Serbian kingdoms, a danger. Nevertheless, I have always warned against- nursing grudge? against our allies. Where would we be if they had •not protected us in August. 1913, and again in August, 1914? What would become of us now if tbey turned their hacks on ns? Onr land is overrun by the enemy, our belongings destroyed or carried awav, and froin the same Kossovo Plain, where 526 years ago Sultan Baiazct defeated our King Lazar, and on the dav of the holy St. Vitus, destroyed the realm of the great Serbian Czar Stephen Dushan, we wore poshed to the west. , "We have yet an army left wnich can join yours, or, on the now road from Mohastir and Ochrida, can reach Eibassan and Tirana. We have still, thanks to the cautious tactics. of_Putnik, who, on the sick bed, amid two attacks of pneumonia," gave wise coun-sel-to the able Pavlovicb—Serbia still has men, in freodomsand in captivity who, mated with Serbian women, will one dav produce new Serbian blood. As to the Bulgars, thev fonnd us, despite the fact that we had to split our little armc into three, in terribly bloodv battles just as their scars knew

us. ■ ... "No Balkan king forces his people into-passivo tolerance of a great Bulgaria Which- would reign tipon our srave. - England is in honor hound, bv the promise of her envoy, never to sign" a "pence treaty which does not

•live us back the t« i il"i > thai w;is ours in 1!»!4. r"rain-o. 100. Ims pledged u.s that. •'And in tin- hour of tin- deepen distress, for the In-1 time, t;ie United State-, sanctioned an envoy to my Goicrnment. The misery ot our people cries to' heaven! But nothing is lost which cannot be won back, and we liave the consoling thought that since the assassination of the Austrian Archduke we could not on u single day have acted otherwise: than wedid. : ''Our immediate future, will bo-de-cided, along with those of Russia, France, .England, and Italy. Whether your, son, whether mine, will see the dream of Michael Obrcnovich fulfilled; whether the enemy, more unwise than ho has shown himself thus far, cuts up our country and renders us stateless, 'a -Poland of the Balkans. "The Serbia which survived tho day of Kossovo, and the centuries of unrestrained Ottoman tyranny, will not die by the' foreigner's sword. If she has,after tho first, sun-ray of a half milieuniiim, deserved such cruel punishment, what heaven sends we must bear. But from the innermost faith in tho existence of a Providence springs also the certainty that a new sham death will be followed by a new resurrection!"

A dying man? Xcver has Nicholas beheld his son-in-law so royal. Does Mirko's son, Mirko's father, forget that his pet once proudly proclaimed to the multitude, while showing the new born boy, babe of Natalie Consign tinovieh. that through this child's veins, flowed the blood of the Xjegosh and of the Obrenovich? is Xicholas thinking only of the tree and not of the tribe that is one day to crbwn it as its top? Or is the Vladica of Cettinje now ready to bend his' knee before the antiquated' side title of Francis Joseph, that of the Grand Waywodc of Serbia, if such homage by the Montenegrins should promise uu..n, for their King? Kara Peter already is well nigh a King without a country. And front the crest of the Plr.ek Mountain a handful of good .sharpshooters still holds a numerically stronger foe at bay!