The Italian administration of Dalmatia--economically, politically,
scholastically, ecclesiastically and financially (as we will show)--was
thoroughly mistaken. Wherever one goes one is overwhelmed with evidence;
it is impossible to print more than a tithe of it. But the mention of
Knin recalls the case of Dr. Bogić, who was deported to Sardinia for
political reasons. On January 1 he was arrested, together with a
Franciscan monk, a schoolmaster and others, transported to Šibenik
and put into a cell devoid of bed, light or a window. Thence, with
nothing to eat, although the weather was wintry, he was taken on to the
S.S. _Almissa_, bound for Ancona. Near Šibenik the boat collided with
the isle of Zlarin; he and the other prisoners attempted to get out of
their cabin, but carabinieri kept them there by flourishing revolvers in
their faces. At Ancona, Spoleto, Perugia, Florence and Leghorn the
doctor was always lodged in prisons, had his finger-prints taken, had to
stand up to salute the warders, had to look on while his things were
stolen--at Ancona, for instance, they despoiled him of eighty cigars.
His wrists were always bound; he was attached not only to his
fellow-travellers but to Italians who were under life-sentences. The
carabinieri cut up their bread, put it on their knees and then, without
unbinding the ropes, left them to eat it as best they could. The journey
was very slow; thus from Perugia to Florence--being all the time
attached to one another--it took sixteen hours. Dr. Conti, the prison
doctor at Florence, said that Dr. Bogić was ill, but as he declined
to give him a certificate the journey was resumed. From Florence to
Leghorn he was bound so tightly that his wrists were very much swollen.
From Leghorn in the S.S. _Derna_ he was shipped to Sardinia, where he
had experience of several prisons, including that of Terranuova-Pausania,
where water flows down the walls and vermin are everywhere. He received
2.75 lire a day with which to buy his food, and although he is a doctor
they refused to let him read any medical books. When I asked him of what
he had been guilty, he began by recounting his war work. Over 6000
Italian prisoners were at Knin, and he was there as military doctor for
more than two years. These Italians were employed on the railway line
and--as is clear from the letters they wrote to him after their
release--letters some of which I read--they had very friendly
recollections of the doctor. Once in the summer of 1918 a group of
Italians arrived who had been, in the doctor's words, "bestially
maltreated at Zala-Egerseg by the Magyars." Dozens died on the way to
Knin, others while they were being got out of the station, others on
the way to the hospital. They were nothing but skeletons, dressed almost
exclusively in paper clothes. General Wucherer happened to be at Knin
and to him the doctor reported that the Italians had been treated in an
absolutely criminal fashion. Wucherer, who was a decent fellow, ordered
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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