PETER KARAGEORGEVITCH.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13245, 29 July 1916, Page 1 (Supplement)

PETER KARAGEORGEVITCH.

11,. was the Kins of Sorvia. but there i-. no Sorvia. Tho correspondent found hirn in Greece, on the Cull ol Enb.ea, a kins without-a country, lie li tin as sad but dauntless yet. He u< ain the gray-brown Servian uniform with a blue cavalry collar, and _ cavalry breeches with the red general's stripe. lie walk.-, on a cane, but with something of a trim jauntiness in his figure stilt. For the rest, "an eagle fr.ee with hooked nose, a bristling whitemoustache and white imperial, shojve!i|>ped, iron-ejrny hair, and anuvn, almost unseeing eyes.' : As he and ibe Associated Pre-- correspondent walk along the cliffs the peasants whom they pass reverently bare their heads. Peter Karageorgovitch is both pleased and saddened. "Thev have great hearts. >ir, these people!'' he tells the newspaper man. "They are like the people of your own country —plain people, as I am a plain man."' Along with his admiration of America and Americans, he avers his gratitude, also, to France, for this country, as he says in (he interview quoted by the Philadelphia Public Ledger, "is taking our children to her deep bosom, to keep them safe for us after the. war, that the race of Servians may not die out." This recalls vividly to his mind the conditions in his nun country, and he remarks. with tooling: "Vie- all of us learned our war-making under the Turk, ynd the women and children have little chance. I dou"t mean to say they are massacred or anything like that, though that too has happened. But f .refer not only to the fact chat there is little or no provision for non-combatants, no organisation t , hofc tti'ter them. Whorl Austria, made their first invasion nf Sorvia, a year and a ha.lt ago. they had no sanitary provisions even for their own men." Most of their own wounded- died, because tiry could not bo pronerly taken care: of. Hew much relief coiild an army like that afford to a starving civil population, like the population of Servia to-day? No; it is only your comnacriptis in America, who can. lte-Jn ns in this hciiT of our need. And they am doing it. God bless them ! But there is need of much —so much!

ft' only they had come a little sooner our allies! I used to tell my men: •'Hold ou! Just a little longer'. Thcv have said they will oonv\ and they will come!'' And they believed me and held on ... .

You know, wo couldn't even s<ee t.N? Germans. It was all artillery—nwi(bine mnd," war! Mv men used ' to grind their teeth and the tears would run down their poor, thin faces and they would say: ''lf onlv we can Id just get at thorn! We would show them !''

And then, as I rode bv their lines, 1 cclild s?e thorn shaking their heads and nodding at. me and whispering among themselves. '"Poor old King" they were saying; ''he still believes the Allies will come in time to sive us."

The King's emotion prrved too much for him, hut soon his indomitable will triumphed once.more. We read : Slowlv consciousness returned. Kin;r Peter drew a long breath and looked about him dazed. .With his two arms he genitly pnshod away the doctor and the soldier. Turning to the correspon-dent,.-shyly, as one ashamed of his. weakness, he gasped: "I— V.ta sorry. I beg your nardonr! Sometimes I thank laA not very strong." He rose slowlv painfully. Leaning on the arm of Colonel Todoroviton,.. he made \m way to the hotel. At the top of the steps he turned, drew up hi* SKaht hody to its Ml height, smote his heels together sv ♦hat the &yt&* clicked, and wwsed Ms hand smartly to the visor of his cap. ', ".Say- to the peenle of noor great