Twenty Years of Balkan TangleDurham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
History
Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle
Durham, M. E. (Mary Edith)
Balkan Peninsula -- Description and travel; Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
They made no secret of being in communication with Serbia, told of
their expedients to smuggle in papers and dodge the police
authorities. And when the windows were carefully shut used to sing
"Onamo, onamo," and other forbidden Nationalist songs. In one
respect I found the Orthodox exactly like the Moslems. They wanted
to be top-dog and suppress the others. A pretty school mistress
complained to me bitterly of the authorities who had put her to
teach in a purely Catholic district, "where I can do no propaganda
at all." She wanted a Parliament for Bosnia, and assured me that as
the Orthodox party Was the largest they would then be able to shout
the others down, from the gallery, and was naively surprised When I
told her that this was forbidden in England, which she had thought
was a free country. She had been taken once to the Budapest
Parliament for the express purpose of screeching all the time
certain members spoke. The debate ended in a free fight, and she had
been hoarse for days.
This idea of freedom is, of course, not unknown in England. It is
the only one existing across the Adriatic. An ardent Great Serbian
once explained: "When Great Serbia is made we mean to have religious
equality everywhere. For instance, in Ragusa there are two
monasteries, both Catholic. This is unjust. When it is ours, one
will be Orthodox and one Catholic."
"Which do you mean to rob then, the Franciscans or the Dominicans?"
he was asked. "Rob!" he said, much hurt. "We are going to make
religious equality. One must be Orthodox and one Catholic." And this
he continued to repeat, though it was urged that in this case one or
the other order must be deprived of its monastery, and that,
moreover, the vast majority of Ragusa is Catholic.
But Liberty is a glorious thing, and I found the Orthodox heartily
approved of Alexander's murder as one step towards it.
By now I had learned that even officials in Austrian employ were
working against the Austrian Government. A friend of mine, who was
also much interested in things South Slavonic, wrote at this time
and suggested I should join the Slovenski Jug Society then recently
formed. But as it was made clear to me that these so-called
patriotic associations were plotting against the Austrian Government
I decided that I, as a British subject, should steer clear of them,
more especially as one could not tell to what lengths they would go.
I had been on the brink of the plot for the destruction of Alexander
Obrenovitch, a sufficiently alarming precedent, so I declined to
become a member of the Slovenski Jug, preferring a front seat at the
drama to being possibly dragged onto the stage.
As one of my objects in this journey was to see Christmas customs in
a peasant house I determined to leave for Montenegro, where I could
do so easily, and left the tense political atmosphere of Bosnia with
some relief.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
1907
Blindly and bloodily we drift.--MASEFIELD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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