The Jugo-Slavs and the Problem of the Adriatic

THE PRESIDENT introduced Miss Neilson Terry, who recited the poem by Valentine Owen, entitled, "What Has England Done?" The recitation created great enthusiasm, and the audience rose and cheered the young actress.

The President then introduced Mr. Savic as a distinguished Serbian, an able and successful business man; a brilliant journalist and author, and a patriotic soldier, who would relate the story of Serbia.

MR. SAVIC first conveyed the hearty greetings from the Serbian diplomatic representative at Washington, and then said: My task is to put the history of thirteen centuries into a few minutes; to speak of the southern branch of the great Slavic race to which belong the Russians, Ukranians, the Poles, the Jugo-Slavs and

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W. R. Savic, whose book on South Eastern Europe published in January, 1919, has been received in Britain and America as a wonderful historical and literary presentation of the problems of the Balkans, is himself a Serb. He was educated in the Universities of Belgrade, Zurich and Paris and is editor of the most important paper in Serbia and Balkan correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph." He represented Serbia in Petrograd during the revolutionary days; spent the first two years with his regiment in the Serbian Army and, after the retreat through Albania, took charge of the Press Bureau in the Foreign Office for his Government. He came to America highly commended as an able Statesman having had a unique opportunity of knowing South Eastern Europe. President Butler of Columbia University says of him: "By birth and training he is a true representative of Serbian democracy; and both his mental attitude and his form of thinking make strong appeal to the Anglo-Saxon."

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some other minor peoples. The term Jugo-Slavs means southern Slavs to distinguish us from other Slavs. We came, at the time of the great migration of nations, into the country bordering on the north-east shore of the Adriatic Sea. We came, not as courtiers, but on the invitation of the Byzantine emperors, to settle down peacefully and protect the devastated provinces of the eastern Roman Empire from the invasion of the northern and more barbaric peoples; so you see that upon our first appearance on the- scene of history we were assigned a noble part, to protect European civilization against invasions from less civilized people, and to that part my nation has remained faithful until now. (Applause.) The country into which we came is beautiful beyond description, is fertile, and we have taken deep root in it; but we have been few, and that country, so fertile and beautiful, was the goal for more numerous and warlike peoples, all of whom wanted that country, and desired to subjugate my people. We were a peaceful race. When we came down it was recorded by the greatest historian of those times, a Byzantine, Simonides, that already, in the sixth century, the soldiers of the northern tribes made raids into the Slav settlements on the bank of the Danube, and came back with some Slav prisoners. They were tall, big-should ered men with blue eyes, and only with pipes, and harmless, and when, asked who they were they replied: "We are Slavs, coming from the far-off sea, we graze our herds, we make music with our pipes, we know not arms, we do not steal, we do harm to nobody." But the country that we took, and the circumstances under which we lived, were very little favorable to such a race. This country, as you see, and as you have herd through centuries, was always connected with the wars in Europe. It is because this country is upon the great road, because it is practically a bridge connecting the west with the east, and because all the conquering nations of the world had ambitious dreams to build a northern empire, that all of them wanted to pass on that road and to possess that bridge. So, every century, our peaceful nation was obliged to make wars, and little by little to acquire some warlike qualities; and I think that those warlike qualities have served a good purpose many times, and the best in this great war when we fought side by side with you. (Loud applause.)

So, very early, though unorganized in a military way, we fell under the political influence and the civilizing influence of two great centres of civilization, Greece and Rome. The eastern tribes speaking the same language, having the same habits, the same autonomy, found themselves under the influence of Constantinople, and accepted the European civilization represented by the Christian faith in the form of Greek orthodoxy. To that faith a part of my nation has remained faithful until now, and that part is known under the name of Serbs. The western part of my nation is known under two names, Croats and Slavs; they fell under the influence of Rome; they embraced Christianity, and remained faithful to it under the form of Roman Catholicism. That is the only difference between us. We speak the same language, we are intermixed, we have the same national consciousness, and for centuries we have struggled to unite in one state and to have our freedom. But that was denied to us, so we had the European crisis, and had to undergo many historical storms.

The Crusaders passed over our country. Then came the Turks; it was a curse. At that time my country, Serbia, was free, prosperous, and one of the most civilized countries in Europe. We struggled for 150 years against the Turk invader; but we were alone, no one came to our help, and all that we represented there was annihilated. The life of my nation was forced to bear a most dreadful yoke for some five centuries. But we kept faith and we kept hope that we should emerge again to the bright day of freedom. We have every one of the great Christian nations that fought against us. We allied ourselves with the Venetians, with the Austrians, with the Magyars, with the Croatians, in order to exterminate the Turks out of Europe, but very often it happened -that when the Turks were expelled from our lands our allies, being stronger and better organized than we were, wanted to stay there and be our new masters. So, for three centuries we have had only the changing of masters; and at last, on the eve of this great war, the position of my people was this, that only Serbia and Montenegro, two little countries inhabited by one people, were free. The whole population of those two countries was represented by some five millions, and seven millions of my people lived in slavery in Austria-Hungary, which country was nothing else, as you know very well, but a branch office of Berlin. (Hear, hear and applause.) Bismarck, whom the Germans thought a great man, spoke a truth about us in Hungary-"Austro-Hungary is a cow to be grazed on the Balkan Hills, and when she has grazed enough she is to be killed, to the profit of Germany." (Hear, hear.) Austro-Hungary has been killed. (Rear, hear and applause.) It remains now to see that she was not killed to the profit of Germany and when Germany had her ambitious dream of world-empire you understand now why she wanted to pass over Serbia and to conquer that bridge (because Serbia was the key-stone to her grandiose dream) to connect her over the Balkans with her vassals, Bulgaria and Italy, and in that way to reach on to the Persian Gulf and the Suez Canal. You know what was the situation, and how far Serbia yielded in order to spare herself, and you all know the awful crisis through which, happily, we have passed. (Applause.) Serbia was doomed; she was to be crushed to make way for the Germans; but little as she was, Serbia rose as one man and said, "I am not willing; I am a nation, and I shall fight." (Applause.)

I cannot pause at this moment to tell you my personal experience. It was not an easy thing with our small resources to accept a battle against an empire of fifty millions, and we had been exhausted by two years' war against Turkey and Bulgaria previously. I remember very well that when I joined my regiment on the frontier of Bosnia, all soldiers, all my friends there, asked me what was the news from Great Britain. We knew that Russia would go in; we knew that France would follow; but your position was not clear to us; and it happened that I had the news and was the first to bring the happy tidings that Great Britain was on our side. (Applause.) That was a great morning, and since that time I really may say that you have taken part in all our battles. We knew that the task would be very hard, but we knew not only the great resources of your empire, but something better behind it--the spirit which has built that empire, the spirit that animates you--and we knew that victory would be ours. (Applause.) That faith we never abandoned.

I will not dwell upon the opening events of the war in Serbia. You know through what a hell we have passed, but we always had that hope before us. I can only tell you that Serbia has lost in this war more than twenty-five percent of her whole population, that our material resources have been reduced to the state of the original inhabitants of this country, and for three long years we have had the most brutal of conquerors in our country. There was no family life, because all men were abroad. Think, that for those four years not one child was born in Serbia. Think how many tens of thousands of people have perished in that country without proper food and without medical help; and for four long years no Serbian father ever took his child upon his knees. You cannot understand what are the conditions of Serbia, but happily we are through, and we have proved that we are a sturdy race. (Hear, hear and loud applause.) We still look forward and hope that our happiness is in the future. We think all this was necessary because a new order of things is to be created through the war, and the last tidings coming from there is full of joy instead of great material sorrow. Perhaps it is impossible for you to realize what it means, that after thirteen centuries of incessant struggles and failures and deceptions we are at last free and united. (Loud applause.) It is a wonderful time, and we all think it is worth while to fight and to die for the great and beautiful dream. (Applause.)

But just at this moment our joy is somewhat spoiled by the claims made by our allies, and we 'think our friends, the Italians. On the entry of Italy into this great war she was able by treaty to secure some concessions on the eastern shore of the Adriatic in the territories inhabited by my people. We cannot blame Italy very much for having made that treaty, because at that time it was quite a different world from the world we all hope to live in tomorrow; and it was a treaty made under quite different conditions. It was said that Austria-Hungary would continue to exist; it was thought that Russia, by occupying Constantinople and the Dardanelles, would become a Mediterranean power; but the great group of struggling nationalities in Austro-Hungary that would form, new states was not foreseen. Italy wanted to be sure, and she put in some claims that very much affected our interests, and today we southern Slavs are opposing those claims of Italy for the reason that, if granted, they will hamper our unity, will strangle our economic development, and will set at naught many of those finest principles that have been proclaimed and generally accepted by the world as the basis of the new order of things. Italy, in pushing her claims before the Peace Conference--and what is more important, before the conscience of the world-gives different arguments, and I am sure that anyone who will impartially investigate her arguments and weigh them in the light of the new hopes of humanity will find that they cannot stand.

First of all, Italy proclaims that the Adriatic is an Italian sea, and that Italy ought to control all its coasts. You that are sons of sailors, and you that are a seafaring nation, will understand how the claim to appropriate a sea sounds like a sacrilege upon the rights of all other nations. The seas are given to us for free intercourse and exchange between the nations, of material and spiritual goods; so, if Italy is to appropriate the Adriatic, with far more reason, will not Germany come forward and claim to appropriate the Baltic, and say, "It is my sea, and I want to close it."

The other argument the Italians use is, we want to have a strong strategical frontier. Now, ladies and gentlemen, let us remember a great lesson of this war. Where are those strategical frontiers? They are no where. You remember very well how the Germans swept over many and many fortified frontiers and structures in Belgium and Prance and elsewhere, but when they came to the Ypres canal, they were met there by the stout hearts that had to defend the glory of the British Empire, and you stopped them; and so we know that the real strategic frontier is a just cause and a brave heart. (Hear, hear and applause.) Moreover, we may say that through all the thirteen centuries of the history of my nation there is no nation that can stand up and say, "The southern Slavs have invaded my land," or that we southern Slavs have devastated their homes, that we have taken into slavery their mothers, their sweethearts and their sisters. No, we have never made a war of invasion. (Hear, hear.) We have been in all countries of Europe, and always our work has been self-defence; always we have had to stem the tide of foreign invasion. So Italy has no reason to put between us a claim for a strong strategical frontier; her best defence will be the frontier of her navy, and her second, a good heart.

But Italians come and say, "In those territories we claim there is a large Italian population." There is a deal of truth in that assertion. There are Italians living in the Balkan country. The southern Slavs will be most happy to see all Italians, as far as possible (the very small minorities of those Italians that live there continually) incorporated into Italy. On this map you will see that the Italians live in the northern part of Goritzia and the western part of Austria, and that territory can be very easily and most justly incorporated in the Kingdom of Italy; but the further claims put forward have no justice in them. This map was copied from a map published in Rome by Professor Occidicia in 1914, an Italian authority. Since that time the Italian government has done all in its power to withdraw and prevent the publication of that map, because it does not justify her claims of today. Further, on the narrow coast line more to the 'south, there is a province, Dalmatea, inhabited by some 650,000 people, and in that province according to official Austro-Hungarian statistics there are living only 18,000 Italians, less than three per cent. I was reproached once by an Italian gentleman for having used the Austro-Hungarian statistics. I went to a library and found in the official Italian publication of Rome in 1914, just on the eve of the war, an official report by an Italian consul in Dalmatia, Signor Gallia, who gives the number of Italians living in Dalmatia as only 14,000, four thousand less than the numbers given by me, and that was published in the official report of the Italian foreign office. You see by these numbers that Italy cannot put in reasonable national claims to Dalmatia. Moreover, we see that, if Italy is to occupy that territory, she will absolutely prevent my country from developing economically in a free and natural way. Professor Salvini, an Italian author, says to the Italians: "You want to take Trieste in order to achieve commercial monopoly in the Adriatic, as Trieste is the port for all those countries on the bank of the Danube, for Czecho-Slovacs, for Hungary, and for the country around here," and Professor Salvini says, "You want to occupy Fiume just in order to kill it, that it may not compete with Trieste." That northern part of Dalmatia that they want to occupy here is desired just to prevent any really good connection of this northern part of my country with the southern parts on the Dalmatian coasts, and to see that all our future trade must pass through Italian territory and through the narrow channels of the Italian waterways.

For all these reasons, you will realize that we, the southern Slavs, cannot reconcile ourselves to a solution that will see the execution of that plan; and we will do everything in our power to prevent it-and we are seconded in that by the best and most enlightened men in Italy herself. Many prominent politicians, publicists, and historians, have warned Italy not to push those claims too far, but by reasonable concessions to achieve co-operation in the Adriatic. We both have the same interest to be on our guard and to watch future developments in Germany, since our quarrels here will prove the best opportunity for the Germans again to assert their claims, to push us both aside, and to take possession down to the Adriatic.

We have proposed many things to the Italians in order to come to a friendly agreement, and at the last parliament many of the Italians themselves saw the dangers of their claims and invited a congress of nationalities at Rome at which to discuss the situation on the Adriatic. Since that time we have reached an agreement, but the Italian government has brushed aside that pact of Rome, and is standing, so far, firmly upon its territorial claims. We have proposed further that, if we are unable by direct negotiation to come to a friendly agreement with Italy, that we shall go to any court of arbitration that might be chosen between two friends, two neighbours, and we hope to realize this in the future. (Applause.) We have some good hopes that by direct negotiations of our representatives an agreement will be reached, or that some difficulties will arise so that both of us shall accept an arbitration of some power friendly to each of us. We shall struggle very much to settle these difficulties in a peaceful way, because we feel friendly to Italy. We do not fight the Italian nation and Italian democracy, but we must fight against what we feel and think to be the erroneous policy of the Italian government, for we feel that that policy will be harmful equally to us and to Italy. But we have good hopes that enlightened public opinion all over the world, which has given us good assistance, will aid in having this quarrel for the Adriatic settled in an amicable way. Some of the Italian statesmen are, however, very recalcitrant, and we don't know how the whole thing will end. We are there on the shores of the Adriatic for co-operation and for friendship, but it does not depend entirely upon our side. If something unpleasant happens, and Italy succeeds in achieving her materialistic claim for territory inhabited by my people, you will understand that we cannot reconcile ourselves to such a situation; for it would mean that we would only have changed masters again. We must in such case fight, even against our will, if Italy's statesmen have learned nothing during this great war, and have forgotten nothing. We shall do our duty and fight for our own unity and for our complete national freedom, and the responsibility we must leave to them. Our past is clear-to fight and claim nothing that does not belong to us--and we that have remained alive will stand in the place of those that have died in so many fights for freedom and unity, and will continue to fight until we see that ideal realized. We have to do our duty, and the rest we leave to God. (Loud applause.)

THE PRESIDENT : I am sure I am voicing your sentiments when I say to our distinguished guest that we are grateful to him for his earnest, carefully prepared, and most interesting presentation of his country's side of this struggle. We thank him very much. (Applause.)