Whitney Warren.

Q1B0

UNJVER5 1 1922
LIBRARY'

3,

H

KING NICOLAS
'¦If it had not been for the fidelity of Montenegro, her Parliament, her
King, her government and her army, at the close of 1915, the Serbian
army would bave been obliged to surrender." — From THE BALKAN; a
leading paper of Belgrade, Serbia; after the King's death in 1921.

MONTENEGRO
THE CRIME OF THE PEACE
CONFERENCE

By WHITNEY WARREN
Author of: The Testimony of an American Citizen; The Question of
Alsace and Lorraine; The Just Claims of Italy; Fiume and D'Annunzio

NEW YORK
BRENTANO'S 1922

05

Prelude
HISTORY is the supreme dramatist. And
while she flings across a world-wide stage
her multitudes of blind actors without a
cue, she may be working somewhere, obscurely,
upon a simple theme for the apparent chaos, even
as the playwright clears the action for a greater
scene by studying the puppets on a tabletop.
The Balkan mountains were the tabletop of
History. There began, in 1914, a mighty play.
The plots and personages are truly Shakespearean,
disclosing in strange combination the elements of
Lear, Othello and Macbeth.
Montenegro is Cordelia, the disinherited
daughter. But in place of the hateful two, she
has to face a careless, cold or spiteful sisterhood
of nations — her own allies, a little more than kin
and less than kind.

THE curtain rises! Moving through deep
shadows, a woman washing her hands. Is it
one of the sisters? No, Lady Macbeth! and
Lady Macbeth is Serbia! She walks by the
shores of the Adriatic and seeks to cleanse the
stain of blood from her guilty fingers. But they
will not come clean, though she lave them in the
seven seas.
The measure of evil is not yet full. Send for
Iago, the devil that loves a lie for its own sake.
Let him distil the drops of jealousy, fear, distrust
and hatred. And as the cup that should be a
loving cup goes round the board, watch the poison
work its malign effects. The face of Pity hardens
to a sneer. Justice turns aside to listen to the
whispers of Policy.

BUT this is no mimic scene from which the
spectators may go home to quiet sleep and
forgetfulness. We are the actors as well as
the audience. We are the accomplices of the
crimes committed in our presence. It is against
the peace of all men that the murderer lifts his
hand. No victim dies alone. Macbeth hath mur
dered sleep.
If we let Serbia and her accomplices finally kill
the stricken sovereignty of Montenegro we

strengthen every hand that strikes at the security
of the world. If we let the Balkan lie pass for
truth, we are undermining the foundations of our
own freedom.
It cannot be. It must not be. The end is not
yet. There is still breath in a dying nation and
we can save her.
Montenegro must be restored!

; AUSTRIA - HUNGARY

j Serbia before the War

1 Realm now ruled by
» the King of Serbia

WMM--

^Sn\

"As to the former Kingdom of Serbia, it would be perhaps more nearly
proper to speak of its expansion to include Jugoslavia than of its 'absorp
tion' by the new State * * * the new boundaries make Jugoslavia a State
three times the size of pre-war Serbia." — National Geographic Magazine.

MONTENEGRO i.
The Two Dynasties
THESE pages are written with a single pur
pose — to get a hearing for Montenegro, to
defeat the ends of her enemies which are best
served by silence and forgetfulness. America is
bound to take a hand in securing justice. Only
so can she clear herself of complicity in the great
wrong that has been done and is continually being
done to her ally in the world war. For another
member of the same alliance is the source of that
wrong and has used America to aid in carrying
out her selfish and criminal design.
Love of justice is the noblest incentive, but
even self-interest demands action. If such tyranny
and trickery as have wiped Montenegro off the
map are allowed to go unchecked, a Greater War
is inevitable. America will again find herself in-

8 MONTENEGRO
volved, and the taxes of today are as nothing
compared to the burden every citizen will then
have to bear.
Through its extension over Jugoslavia, the
ambitious intrigue of the Serb Court has multi
plied the difficulties of keeping peace in the
Balkans, and thus in the entire world.
America's only hope of escape lies in facing
the truth and acting now. The Great War began
in the Balkans. A restored Montenegro may be
come a stumbling block in the path of trouble
makers who would wreck a world to save them
selves. There is no purpose here to say a word against
the Serbian people. On the contrary, to show how
their rulers and diplomats misrepresent them is
to set them right before the world. The spirit
of the true Serbia is expressed in Professor
Pupin's delightful recollections of his boyhood,
in Scribner's Magazine. Nicolas the poet-prince
of Montenegro was the native embodiment of the
best old Balkan traditions, dishonored by the
Belgrade bureaucrats.
Like the Manchus in old China, the Kara-
georgevitches are an alien dynasty. The founder
of the line was a Gypsy, "Black (Kara) George."
The present King is Alexander, son of Peter
Karageorgevitch and his queen, Zorka, the

THE TWO DYNASTIES 9
daughter of Nicolas of Montenegro, who was
therefore Alexander's grandfather. In a period
now conveniently forgot, Peter sought refuge
in the Black Mountain. King Nicolas gave him
shelter and aid and crowned all other benefits
with the hand of his daughter. The very blood
in Alexander's veins cries out against Serbian
injustice to Montenegro.
King Nicolas is dead. The enemies of Mon
tenegro used to fabricate excuses for their conduct
toward his realm out of stories of his alleged
errors. They never brought any of these accu
sations out into the open where they could be
met fairly. In any case they can no longer strike
Montenegro over his head. What they do now
is done against a once free people — the Serbians'
"blood brothers" with equal right to freedom.
But even the king's death does not relieve us of
responsibility for considering his case. For we
must go back to Serbian jealousy of the Monte
negrin dynasty to find a clue to the whole plot.
George H. Moses, who has served in the United
States Senate and in Greece and Montenegro as
American Minister, had every opportunity to
know King Nicolas, man and monarch. He calls
him "the last of the patriarchs — the one monarch
of Europe who, to my mind, really fitted his
tradition. For more than half a century he

10 MONTENEGRO
maintained the ascendancy of (the Petrovitch
dynasty, had twice doubled the area and popu
lation of his realm as the result of his personal
leadership in war, granted to his people a con
stitution, a ministry and a parliament — and yet
remained himself the final source of authority as
in those days, not so far in the past, when he sat
in his chair beneath the plane tree in front of the
palace, at Cettinje and personally heard and de
cided the grievances of his peasants one against
another." To such comparative security the vicissitudes
of Serbia's government offered a contrast un-
pleasing to her court. After the assassination
of Alexander, last of the Obrenovitch line, and
Queen Draga, the other governments of Europe
treated Serbia with marked coolness. It was
unendurable to her that King Nicolas should
be enjoying the favor of the foreign powers as
well as of his own people. It is always easy
to start rumors about any public man. And
the plotters began to undermine the king's re
putation. It is not worth while to follow this muddy
trail of innuendo, except as it touches the war.
But it dates far back of the war and the motive
is too plain to miss — jealousy of Nicolas' good
record and high standing among Balkan rulers.

THE TWO DYNASTIES 1 1
If a Jugoslav confederacy had been formed in
the early years of the twentieth century, he would
have been the logical head of it. And the knowl
edge of that fact drove Serbian conspirators
wild. The fact that Nicolas was the benefactor
of their own king and the father of their queen
only increased their exasperation. Another daugh
ter of Nicolas was Queen of Italy and still an
other, Militza, married Peter Nicolaevitch, Grand
Duke of Russia — a positive offense in the selfish
view of Serbian diplomats.
The house of Karageorgevitch could never
have gone as far as it has without the service
of men who have made an art of intrigue. One
is forced to admire their skill even while detesting
its misuse. In Premier Pachitch and in His Ex
cellency M. Vesnitch, the Serbian minister to
France during the war, the dynasty had an in
comparable pair of political chess-players. Ves
nitch, in Paris, won every move in the inter
national game. He balanced all the forces, play
ing one against another, as Count Bernstorff did
in Washington through the precarious years be
fore America entered the war. But, unlike Bern
storff, Vesnitch had the good luck to be favored
by circumstance.
England and France cared nothing for the
Serbian dynasty. But they both saw their ad-

12 MONTENEGRO
vantage in permitting the expansion of a power
that should take the place of Austria-Hungary
in the Adriatic, hoping thus to counterbalance
any superiority Italy might possibly have in
those waters. The attitude of England and
France was perfectly natural, perfectly human.
There was nothing in their behavior that cannot
be explained without imputing to them any
malice toward Montenegro. And even in these
countries there have been strong protests on her
behalf. For among all civilized peoples there is a
latent sense of right which needs only to be
wakened to secure justice to the nation that has
suffered the deepest wrong known to modern
history.

II.
In the World War
MONTENEGRO is a small state on the map.
So is Belgium, which has been exalted to
heaven and her recovery hastened in every
way — as it should be; while a perfidious power
has been permitted to drive an indomitable race

IN THE WORLD WAR 13
of free men up into the clefts of the Black Moun
tains. The very rocks are kinder to the Monte
negrins than their Serbian neighbors, men of their
own blood.
Without making a single condition, Monte
negro entered the war on the side of the Allies
and particularly in aid of Serbia. At the first
hint of trouble, Premier Pachitch telegraphed to
the Montenegrin Government to find where it
stood. In three hours a reply came to Belgrade,
containing these words:
"In any event, Montenegro will share, today as
always, good and ill with Serbia. Your fate
shall be ours!" The date of that dispatch was
July 24, 1914. On the same day, Serbia wired
the definite question:
"Can Serbia count upon the fraternal and un
limited assistance of Montenegro in case of con
flict with Austria Hungary?" On the following
day, this reply was returned to Belgrade:
"Serbia may count on the unlimited fraternal
help of Montenegro in this critical moment for
those of Serbian blood as well as at any other
time." Note that this positive declaration was made
before Russia or the other great nations had be
come Serbia's allies.

14 MONTENEGRO
And when the Crown Prince Alexander
thanked his grandfather for this generous offer,
the old King followed up the first message with
this ringing statement of fact:
"My Montenegrins are already at the border,
ready to die for the defense of the Sacred
Common Cause." All of his mountaineers from
18 to 61 years of age were mobilized at once.
Are these the words or the acts of a King
who could ever betray his friends as Nicolas was
accused of doing by those whose interest lay in
the success of another dynasty?
Montenegro entered the world war without a
shadow of compulsion. She had neither treaty
nor convention with any power that could en
tangle her against her will. Except for geographi
cal position, she was as free as the United States.
But her people as well as her government were
incapable of remaining inactive.
Montenegro could have urged certain ancient
claims to surrounding territory as the price of
her support. She asked nothing, she waited for
nothing. "Fight first, bargain afterward," was her charac
teristic gesture. Austria knew the valor of this
foe and offered a bribe of territory, which was
refused. The army was poorly equipped. And unlike

IN THE WORLD WAR 15
the armies of other nations it had no rich re
sources to draw upon. In recent years it had
suffered heavy losses, including that of 10,000
men at Scutari.
Yet Austria, judging by man quality more than
numbers or supplies, sent as large a force as
against the Serbs. The Allies were too much
occupied elsewhere to give help, as they had
promised. The simple unquestioned facts relating to King
Nicolas draw the teeth of the charges brought
against him. It was said that he gave up the
fight too soon. The fact is that his army was
wholly under Serbian military authorities. It had
actually done superb service in covering the re
treat of the many times larger Serbian force.
Where the main body could not stand against
the enemy, how could the little Montenegrin de
tachment be asked to do so?
On December 29th, 1915, Premier Pachitch
and Col. Pechitch, both of Serbia, went to the
King and urged that he make a truce with
Austria. He protested but finally said, in sub
stance :
"One of you is responsible for the politics, the
other for the army; if you ask for an armistice
it will be solely and entirely upon your own
personal responsibility."

16 MONTENEGRO
On January 13, 1916, Col. Pierre Pechitch, Ser
bian commander of the Montenegrin troops wrote
to King Nicolas:
"All the heads of the army on the west front
declare that such demoralization is manifest in
our army that resistance to the enemy is abso
lutely impossible.
"The Cattaro division is completely scattered
and practically non-existent.
"The commanders of the Cattaro and Lovtchen
divisions have not a single cannon. The army is
starving; it has few munitions, there being no
hope of changing that state of affairs.
"Showing you in its reality the state of the
army, I have the honor of calling to the attention
of your Majesty the absolute impossibility under
such conditions of going on with the struggle."
Col. Pechitch thereupon urges the King to make
peace and to withdraw for the present from
Montenegro. Nobody ever accused Clemenceau of having
any special prejudice in the case or of being re
tained to plead for Nicolas. But this is what
he printed in U Homme Enchaine, January 1916:
"Italy is taking no pains to defend Mount
Lovtchen, which is necessary to the existence of
our friend Montenegro and which would be, in
the hands of the Austrians, a powerful menace

IN THE WORLD WAR 17
to the freedom of the Adriatic in the feeding of
the Serbian army now in the worst extremity of
misfortune." And then the old tiger adds, with the irony for
which he is famous:
"Mount Lovtchen, abundantly provided with
prehistoric artillery, calmly waits for some one to
come and take it."
Yet Nicolas was accused of giving up Mount
Lovtchen secretly to the Austrians. The cowardly
enemies of the King never had a case which they
dared present in the open court of public opinion.
And the Mount Lovtchen lie is one of the most
foolish of all, since there is not a fact on record
that would help to render it plausible. Before
the historic height was surrendered, the King
had turned over to the Serbians all active con
trol of his army.
Having fought to the last cartridge, the devoted
army saw disaster at hand. The entire govern
ment had moved to France, except the minister
of war. He withdrew into the mountains to or
ganize a guerilla campaign.
So effectively was this carried out that the
Austrian military governor resorted to an ex
treme measure, which Asquith characterized as
the worst single crime of the war.
A notice was posted throughout Montenegro

18 MONTENEGRO

to this effect: The minister of war must appear
to treat for peace in three days. Upon his failure
to do so, his father, over 80 years of age, and his
brother, were to be hung.
As soon as they heard the condition, both
father and brother sent word to the minister, "Do
not return. It is better for us to die than for
Montenegro to yield." Between the call of affec
tion and the plain course of his duty, Gen.
Vessovitch made the choice his family and the
nation counted on him to make. He stayed at
his post.
The proposed murder of an innocent old man
was too shocking to be carried through. Fran
cis Joseph, another old man whose tragic career
was soon to end, "pardoned" the father. The
brother however, was killed according to the pro
gram. Nobody has ever been punished for this
medieval method of striking an enemy that could
not be overcome in battle.

III.
The Campaign of Slander
WHILE Montenegro was fighting Serbia's
battles, the plotters against the little state
were held in check by self-interest. But
from the moment of the Austrian occupation the
campaign of detraction went on, more effectively
than ever. Forgotten lies were retold, new ones
invented. The old fake secret treaty purporting
to have been made between Austria and Monte
negro long before the war was circulated where
it would make the most trouble.
This "treaty" was dated 1907 and signed with
the name of a minister who had then been out of
office for months. First published in 1912, and
at once positively branded as false by the Mon
tenegrin government, it was reprinted during
the war at Nich, in the Tribuna, a paper con
trolled by Premier Pachitch of Serbia. But the
burden of proof is on the accuser and Serbia has
never presented any evidence fit to satisfy a ju
dicial body that such an agreement existed.
If, however, anybody chooses to believe the

20 MONTENEGRO
tale, he must admit that Austria got no good from
the arrangement.
Who did this work of undermining a nation's
credit? It would be profitless to print any ex
tended list of Serbia's agents. Tools are easy
to buy when there is money. Perhaps the Bene
dict Arnold of this betrayal was Radovitch, a
renegade member of King Nicolas' former court,
and author of anti-Montenegrin pamphlets.
The career of this man ought to be written.
It would furnish plots for half a dozen novels
and feature films. He is the Busy Bee of the
Balkans. Before the war he had represented
Montenegro at various European courts, served
as Chief Engineer and Chief of Ordnance, Prefect
of Police, Counsellor of State and finally Presi
dent of the Council. So intimate and apparently
affectionate were his relations with royalty that
he used to call himself "The King's fourth son."
At one period or another, this Radovitch was
on all sides of the Montenegrin question.
His conscience and his tongue were equally flex
ible. At one moment he would profess to know
the King's most secret thoughts. Later he would
accuse him of some evil deed.
"But you were his friend at that very time,"
some one would object. Whereupon he would

THE CAMPAIGN OF SLANDER 21
forget his boast of intimacy and profess com
plete ignorance of the King's wicked ways.
Even after he had begun to work against the
King, Radovitch pretended to offer his old chief
the first place in a Jugoslav confederacy he was
trying to patch up. Here is a part of his letter
to Nicolas, written in August, 1916:
"Besides the Council composed of delegates
from the different states, there must be a perma
nent President of the Confederation. If your
Majesty took part in the realization of the Jugo
slav state, in accordance with the principle just
explained, the popularity thus to be won because
of your past and your family ties, affords reason
to believe that this position, first in the eyes of
all in the Balkans would be offered you by the
Powers." The very fact that Radovitch could propose
King Nicolas for such participation in the
government of the Balkan States, nullifies his
whole campaign of slander. He and all his tribe
cared nothing for Serbia or Montenegro. Rado
vitch publicly admitted the receipt of large sums
of money from "Serbian patriots of independent
means." Yet he posed as a representative of
Montenegrins — who unfortunately had no money
with which to secure the circulation of the truth.

22 MONTENEGRO
The vicious feature of all this is that so many
people believed the propaganda put out by Rado
vitch and Company. And Americans ought to
know that part of the very money which the
United States Treasury Department advanced to
Serbia in 1917-18 was used to deceive them as
to the Montenegrin situation.

IV.
The King's Plea
THIS is neither a story of the whole war, nor
even a full account of Montenegro's part in
it. The facts related are chosen in order to
make the present situation clear.
The instant the Austrians left, that is, after
their defeat in the battle of Vittorio-Veneto, in
October, 1918, affairs developed with a swift
ness that must rouse the suspicions of any im
partial reader of history. It was not the Monte
negrin government that returned home, as did
the governments of Belgium and Serbia. In
stead, an "Allied" army of occupation marched
in and took charge. The majority of the troops
were Serbians, with a French general in command.
King Nicolas had written to the French gov-

THE KING'S PLEA 23
eminent, whose guest he was, asking leave to
return to his own land. M. Pichon, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, replied that conditions there were
too uncertain. But he added:
"Your Majesty may be assured that the troops
placed under the command of General Franchet
d' Esperey will neglect nothing to assure in your
kingdom the maintenance of order, and that they
will put into practice the respect of the constitu
tional authorities as well as of the liberties of the
people of Montenegro."
In conversation, the French Minister accredited
to Montenegro, had assured Nicolas that all
orders should be given in his name as King of
Montenegro. On the 26th of November, two weeks after the
Armistice, the annexation of Montenegro to Ser
bia was proclaimed by the representatives of
Serbia. The other Allies were informed that
the people of the nation summarily disposed
of desired such extinction! How could their
desires be ascertained in that time? Their
history cries "Impossible!" to that amazing irony.
The Powers never recognized that notification.
On January 13, the Supreme Council unanimously
decided that Montenegro should be reinstated
"when the political situation cleared."

24 MONTENEGRO
Note that the plotters in Belgrade and Paris
were unable to achieve direct results, because the
facts were against them. Their hope was in delay
and this M. Vesnitch gained, ably seconded as he
was by the charming American wives of Serbian
leaders, in Washington and in Paris. These
clever ladies fairly outclassed the male diplomats
in the subtle effectiveness of their social program.
They pervaded the French and American capitals
with their graceful activities. No occasion was
too small to be utilized in creating political
advantages for Serbia.
Everything else was overshadowed by their
final stroke, which proved completely successful.
They won the coveted approach to a dominant
representative of America through friendship with
his wife. As this became more intimate, Amer
ica's interest in Montenegro cooled.
Moreover, the Jugoslav proclivities of Wick-
ham Steed of the London Times, through that
paper's tremendous prestige, undoubtedly inclined
official England against interference in Monte
negro's behalf.
In all this however, Montenegro was treated
as a conquered nation instead of an ally that had
entered the war at once and made every sacrifice
for the common cause. Astonishing as it may

THE KING'S PLEA 25
seem, she was never allowed a representative
in the Peace Conference.
It is hopeless to seek for the slightest thread of
consistency in the treatment accorded Montenegro
by her allies. So late as October 1918 there was
still an accredited French Minister to the exiled
Montenegrin Court. He wrote then to King
Nicolas: "The French Government has no purpose to in
terfere in the internal affairs of an Allied State.
It is therefore plain that when French military
authorities shall enter Montenegro, they cannot
assume any attitude other than recognition of the
legal authority, which is that of King Nicolas."
Yet in practice, that authority was completely
disregarded. A year before the letter just quoted,
in August 1917, the French government had re
fused to approve passports made out by Mon
tenegrin authorities. Yet when the same appli
cants obtained Serbian passports, they were ap
proved at once. And on some of these the old
Montenegrin capital was given as "Cettigne, a
department of Serbia!"
On November 24, 1918, Raymond Poincare,
then President of France, now her Premier, sent
King Nicolas, his "dear and great Friend," a
letter containing these paragraphs:

26 MONTENEGRO
"France has not forgotten the courage with
which Montenegro rose, at the call of Your
Majesty, for the defence of its independence. She
knows the hardships endured by the people of the
Black Mountain and is working to the best of her
ability to relieve them.
"Your Majesty may be assured that the Gov
ernment of the Republic to whose sympathy for
the small states he rightly appeals, will lend itself
to no attempt which would aim to force the will
of the people of Montenegro and to deny their
legitimate aspirations.
"The French troops called upon to occupy pro
visionally the territory of your kingdom, respect
ful of established institutions, will devote them
selves to maintaining order, assisting the popula
tion to the best of their ability to prepare for the
reestablishment of normal life, which was deeply
disturbed by the grievous trials of the enemy's
occupation. "It appears- preferable tha^ Your Majesty should
delay the return to his kingdom until this purpose
has been achieved and life shall have resumed its
normal course in Montenegro.
"The presence of the Allied troops, the co
operation which they will lend to the inhabitants,
will contribute no doubt to hasten this moment

THE KING'S PLEA 27
for which Your Majesty longs. As soon as it has
arrived, the Government of the Republic will be
happy, Your Majesty, to facilitate your return."
It was not, however, the formal phrases of the
President of France that carried the greatest influ
ence. They had the familiar ring of the kind
of diplomacy that brought on the war. America
was an unknown quantity. Her promise might
mean something.
As a last resort, on January 7, 1919, Nicolas
wrote personally to President Wilson an appeal
for justice, warning the American executive
against "the intrigues of the Serbs and their plots
to secure in advance" the aid of the United
States. Here is a paragraph of that letter:
"Yesterday in one of the chief cities of Mon
tenegro my downfall was proclaimed, following
the use of Serbian bombs and the distribution of
money among a population dying of hunger. The
union of my state with Serbia was decreed, more
over, by misuse of Serbian troops and at a mo
ment when 9,000 Montenegrins, including 2,000
officers, were still detained in Austrian concentra
tion camps and their King held by the Allies in
France." Addressing Nicolas as "King of Montenegro,"
President Wilson wrote him on January 9 the
following letter:

28 MONTENEGRO
"My Good Friend:
"I have received your letter of January seventh
and read it with the deepest interest. I must at
present content myself with a brief acknowledge
ment of it, but I beg that you will believe that
the days will not be too crowded or too hurried
for me to drive interests of sturdy Montenegro
out of my mind or to lessen in the least my sin
cere desire to do everything in my power to see
that justice is done her.
"The matters to which you call my attention
will have my most serious and sympathetic con
sideration. "Cordially and sincerely yours,
"(Signed) Woodrow Wilson."
When Serbia, under cover of an Allied occupa
tion, began to assert arbitrary authority, after the
Armistice, the independent mountaineers had
naturally risen in revolt. Montenegro's case had
been laid before the Peace Congress, and its Su
preme Council advised King Nicolas to urge pa
tience upon his people, in that very request being
an acknowledgement of the King's rightful
authority. Now the Montenegrins are a patriarchal people.
They have no faith in diplomacy, in ententes

THE KING'S PLEA 29
cordial or uncordial, in treaties or conventions.
Such a thing as a signed contract does not exist
there. If one man gives his word to another, the
matter is settled.
They might have refused the plea of European
statesmen. But America had won their faith.
When President Wilson asked them through King
Nicolas to lay down their arms, they trusted his
messages and his original promise in the Fourteen
Points. They relied on the good faith of America
to carry out this promise of all the Allies, written
by the President of the United States and given
to King Nicolas on January 22, 1919:
"A good opportunity will soon be offered to the
Montenegrin people to express themselves freely
upon the political form of their future govern
ment." Acting on the basis of these words, the King
sent the following letter to Montenegro:
"To My Dear People:
"I beg you to remain quietly in your homes
and not to offer armed resistance to the troops
that are trying to nullify the government of our
country. I have received the highest assurances
from representatives of the Allied nations that a
good opportunity will soon be offered to the
Montenegrin people to express themselves freely

30 MONTENEGRO
upon the political form of their future govern
ment. "And for my part, I will gladly accept that
decision. "Nicolas."
The King's final letter to President Wilson is
worth a careful reading by every American, for
it is really addressed through our chief executive
to America. The date is April 3, 1919.
"Dear and Great Friend:
"Six months will soon have passed since the
collapse of brute force, personified in Prussian
militarism, thanks to the bravery of the Allied
peoples, but thanks especially to the admirable
energy of the United States. The latter from the
first day of their intervention, by the enormous
moral and material forces they brought with
them, became the decisive factor in the realiza
tion of the supreme ideal of humanity — the conse
cration of the right to live, for the small as well
as for the great.
"The history of my country and its freedom —
an inseparable condition through six centuries —
is nothing but an uninterrupted chain of bloody
struggles for the realization of this ideal.
"I am proud of my country, for Montenegro,

THE KING'S PLEA 31
like your glorious nation, threw itself into the
strife without imposing utilitarian conditions,
without selfish, hidden calculation, but solely in
order to collaborate, insofar as it was able, in the
triumph of right and justice over brute force and
all that was arbitrary.
"A conscious victim of its generous and spontane
ous action, Montenegro had the undoubted right
to complete restoration on the same grounds as
Belgium and Serbia, a right which was solemnly
recognized as due to it by yourself, Mr. President,
in the name of the United States, and by all the
governments of the other great Allied Powers.
Furthermore, the hard combats and suffering
which, alone, Montenegro has undergone in the
past, the struggles and sacrifices endured in com
mon in these days, ought to have sufficed, perhaps,
to procure for it, on the part of the Allies, certain
rewards of a moral and political order. Alas!
none came; on the contrary, certain Allies did not
hesitate even to put its very existence as a sov
ereign and independent State in question.
"Montenegro is today the victim of the worst
of oppressions. The Serbian army of occupation,
constituted, organized and equipped by the Allies,
acting under the order of a French general, Com
mander-in-chief of the Armies of the Near East,

32 MONTENEGRO
has invaded my land, and this at a time when not
one enemy soldier remained on Montenegrin soil.
Immediately on their arrival, these invaders pro
claimed the annexation of Montenegro to Serbia
— an Allied State.
"During this time, my Government and myself
were not only prevented, during the war, from
forming a combatant unit of Montenegrin refu
gees and emigrants from America, but, further,
at the moment of the evacuation of Montenegro
by enemy troops, we were forbidden to leave the
land of exile under a threat of the immediate
breaking off of diplomatic relations on the part
of the French Government if we tried to return
to Montenegro.
"In this manner official Montenegro has been
virtually held in captivity, whereas the Command
of the Allied Armies in the Near East favored
Serbian invasion and the return to the country
of a small number of Montenegrin renegades in
the pay of the Serbian Government, so that, tak
ing advantage of the confusion in which the coun
try found itself, the Serbians might proceed more
easily with the destruction of our national institu
tions and the suppression of the independence of
Montenegro. "Mr. President, I believe that the most elemen-

THE KING'S PLEA 33
tary justice as well as the solemn undertakings
of the Allies and the universal conscience of which
you are the noble mouthpiece imperatively de
mand that Montenegro be restored at the earliest
possible moment to the full rights it enjoyed
before the war. That is what the majority of
the Montenegrin people demand. That is why it
has risen in insurrection and why it is still
struggling and suffering today.
"Mr. President, as soon as the Montenegrin
State shall have been restored and I am back in
my country, I shall call a Parliament in conform
ity with the constitutional dispositions and laws of
the Montenegrin State. That constitution, which
is in spirit more liberal than the constitution of
the Kingdom of Serbia, is a guarantee that our
Parliament will be the true interpreter of the wish
of the people of Montenegro.
"I solemnly declare to you, Mr. President, that
I will accept, without reserve any and every de
cision of the Parliament thus legally convened,
even though such decision be unfavorable to me
as a sovereign.
"Moved solely by the interests of the Monte
negrin people, whose rights are at present ignored,
I take this step of appealing to you, Mr. Presi-

34 MONTENEGRO
dent, which I pray you to consider as a solemn
engagement on my part towards the President of
the Republic of the United States. And if among
the great Allies there is to be found one who
should try to cast a doubt upon the sincerity of
my undertaking, I declare that I submit in ad
vance to any decision which you, Mr. President,
may think fit to take to ensure the legality and
sincerity of the consultation of the Montenegrin
people as well as the carrying out of the deci
sions of Parliament legally convoked.
"I pray your Excellency, dear and great friend,
to believe me,
"Your very sincere friend,
"(signed) Nicolas."
The Montenegrins had fought for the cause
which later became ours, and they judged Amer
ican comrades by themselves. Nothing could have
made them betray or leave helpless to the enemy
one who had risked life in their cause.
Well, what happened, after all these promises?
Nothing at all.
The Montenegrins laid down their arms and
waited. But when they saw the Serbians bring
ing in reinforcements to make possession more
and more secure, they became refugees in the

the king's plea 35
mountains, their natural fortresses. Their enemies
followed and today these two neighbor nations
are engaged in the bloodiest of conflicts, with no
quarter given.
Meanwhile the official exchange of notes went
on in Paris. Writing letters was the only re
source left, and the best use was made of it.
The letters of the King and his ministers con
stitute an unanswerable case for Montenegro. No
refutation of these facts and arguments has ever
been made. The only kind of answer Montenegro
has received is the wolf's characteristic exhibi
tion of his teeth, in ^sop's fables. But unhappily,
this is no fable.
On August 26, 1919, King Nicolas addressed to
Premier Clemenceau, as head of the Peace Con
gress, a demand for an inquiry into the Monte
negrin case.
Recalling the fact that the Supreme Council
had not recognized the annexation of Monte
negro but on the contrary admitted its claim to
separate representation at Versailles, the King
adds: "The question of Montenegro is not a dynastic
issue, as its enemies assert. It has to do, on the
contrary, with a great principle which ought to
be the more profoundly respected because it

36 MONTENEGRO
safeguards the painfully acquired rights of a
weak nation and a small people.
"In what affects me personally, I am always
ready to make not only all sacrifices claimed by
the right and the welfare of Montenegro, but
those dictated by the general interests of the
Allies as well. But in my quality as chief of the
Montenegrin State, I am obliged by the national
constitution to defend her honor and my own,
along with her rights and her interest."
He repeats the request already made for a com
mission to investigate his own conduct and that
of his people during the war, as well as the
treatment they have endured from others. "What
ever be the results of this enquiry," he concludes
with quiet dignity, "I am ready to abide by the
consequences." But it is not chiefly himself that Nicolas is
considering. The whole burden of his plea is the
release of his troubled people. "I beseech the
Peace Conference to put an end to the intoler
able situation in which the Montenegrin nation
is now living; to re-establish her sovereign rights
according to the solemn engagements of the Great
Powers, Allied and Associated, thus assuring to
her the right of free disposition as an independent
constitutional state."

the king's plea 37
On December 1, 1919, Nicolas wrote President
Poincare, recalling his promise that the Allied
force would be respectful of established institu
tions in Montenegro and would do all they could
to hasten the day to which the King looked for
ward. Nicolas asserted that the troops had acted
in exactly the opposite manner, aiding the forcible
annexation of Montenegro by Serbia. And since
the French General Franchet d' Esperey was in
command, France was in a measure responsible
for their behavior.
President Poincare replied that General Fran
chet d' Esperey was no longer in command, with
the implication that acts which had been per
mitted when he was in command had no further
interest. These statements contained in the King's
answer to the President of France, dated January
12, 1920, give a clear and concise summing up
of the charge not only against Serbia but against
the other nations that had permitted Serbia's acts :
"In the judgment of History, the Great Powers
will be held accountable without evasion for the
injustice practiced up to this hour against the
sovereign Allied State of Montenegro. Their
responsibility arises from the fact that all the
Allied military forces includng the commander

38 MONTENEGRO
of the Army of the Orient, General Franchet d'
Esperey, are under supreme authority of the War
Council of the Great Powers. Now one of its
lieutenants, the reigning Prince of Serbia, carried
out the military occupation of the territory of
the Montenegrin State, and while that Allied
country was in his power, annexed it. The reign
ing Prince of Serbia, with the part of the Allied
army of which he assumed the subordinate com
mand, on that occasion acted contrary not only
to the solemn agreements of the Great Powers, in
regard to Montenegro, but also to Your Excel
lency's letter of November 24, 1918, as well as
to that of his Excellency M. Pichon of November
4, 1918.
"In his rank as subordinate, the reigning Prince
of Serbia was responsible for this international
crime to his superior, General Franchet d' Espe
rey and the General himself was answerable to
the Commander-in-chief of the Allied armies.
Marshall Foch, who in his turn should give an
account to the Supreme Council where the Gov
ernment representatives of the Great Powers in
alliance with Montenegro are officially met.
"The Great Powers united in the Peace Con
gress are therefore bound, morally and legally to
make reparations for what the subordinate officer,

THE king's plea 39
the reigning Prince of Serbia has done under their
authority. "My government and I have never asked any
thing but respect for the will of the Montenegrin
people and their legitimate aspirations as well as
regard for the constitution and the sovereignty
of their State. Certainly the Montenegrin peo
ple alone have the right to decide their destiny,
after they have been restored on the same basis as
Belgium and Serbia, by the Allies, who are under
obligation to do this. They should be restored
to the full exercise of their organization as a
sovereign nation, as on the day of its entry into
the war beside their Allies, to strive, to fight and
to sacrifice themselves."
A group of the most intelligent members of
both houses of Parliament in Great Britain pre
sented a resolution on April 21, 1920, which states
the situation clearly, thus:
"In consideration of the heroic services ren
dered by Montenegro — the smallest of our Allies
— and the heavy losses sustained by her people,
she should have the individual right to deter
mine her future government, that is to say, it is
necessary that her Parliament be elected accord
ing to the Montenegrin constitution, to decide

40 MONTENEGRO
that question. The freedom of the vote will be
guaranteed by the departure of all Serbian troops
and authorities that now occupy Montenegro. It
is only by this means that the promises of the
Great Powers can be strictly fulfilled and that the
principles for which the Allies fought will re
ceive their sanction by the restoration of the
sovereignty of Montenegro."
Among the signers, representing some eight
party groups, were Viscount Bryce, Tom Griffiths,
F. A. Macquisten, Ronald Mc Neill, Sir Martin
Conway, J. L. Blynes, Lord Burnham, Viscount
Gladstone, J. H. Thomas. Conservative peers
joined radical labor members in this non-partisan
plea for simple justice.

V.
The Occupation
WE have left the story of events in Monte
negro itself, in order to show the efforts
King Nicolas was making in Paris. But
the Serbians never waited an instant for the law
ful government to move. Law could be attended
to later. What they wanted was action.

THE OCCUPATION 41
They had long been preparing to lay the
foundation for their new structure by excavating
and getting rid of whatever might give any aid
or even recognition to the old. Their ends were
accomplished in various ways.
After Nicolas went to France, the French and
British Governments had allowed a monthly
credit of 400,000 francs, for governmental ex
penses. This was soon reduced to 200,000. But
no payment was made from January 1917 to
September 1918. Serbia received her allowance
regularly. And the Serbians turned over small
sums to any Montenegrins who would acknowl
edge the Serbian sovereign. The policy followed
by Serbia was always the same: To secure from
the Allies all advantage, authority and money
as administrators for Montenegro; and to use all
such powers in behalf of those who gave up any
claim to Montenegrin citizenship. Since many
refused to do this the little nation endured hard
ships that might have been relieved if she had
been justly treated.
All the old governmental machinery of the na
tion had been taken apart and every effort to
assemble it had been checked. The salaries of
officials remained unpaid and many of these were
suffering great privation, in which of course their

42 MONTENEGRO
families shared. This very fact was used to carry
out the diabolic design.
Every former government employee who would
accept the usurping regime received back pay and
a generous share in the relief funds. A certain
number reluctantly did this to save their chil
dren's lives. The point to be remembered, how
ever, is that many held out for independence and
still hold out.
There is today a Montenegro that refuses to
acknowledge the rule of Serbia.
Here is a brief resume of the steps taken to give
a show of legal form to Serbia's arbitrary acts :
As early as July 1917, Premier Pachitch made
a preliminary announcement of the annexation of
Montenegro, in the Declaration of Corfu. Serbia's
bad faith in the whole process needs only her own
documents for proof. After such a declaration
any "popular vote" of Montenegrins "to decide
the destiny" of their country could be only a
hideous farce.
But the farce must be carried through. On
October 25, 1918, four persons having no real
authority whatsoever signed a call for an "elec
tion of delegates to a great national assembly."
Two of these were Serbians — Inspector Tomitch
of the department of public instruction and
Kossovitch, a high school teacher.

THE OCCUPATION 43
The "great national assembly" met in a build
ing surrounded by armed Serbian bravos and
"voted" away Montenegro's liberty on November
26, fifteen days after the Armistice, when the
other Allied peoples were rejoicing in the pros
pect of complete restoration. There was no de
bate over thus disposing of a people's existence.
The resolutions passed had been drawn up and
printed at Corfu. In half a day the meeting was
over, Montenegro's future having been placed in
the hands of a directorate of five men. Three of
these "patriots" had been implicated in the plot
against Nicolas in 1907. Planning the assassina
tion of the King was a fit prelude to the betrayal
of his nation.
The same tactics that had carried through the
organization of the "great national assembly"
were used to prevent any reassertion of national
sentiment. In the "elections" of 1920, no candi
dates opposed to annexation were permitted to
stand for office. The Serbian Minister of the
Interior expressly forbade the presentation of
their names to the public. The only resource
open to Montenegrins if they wished to cast their
votes against the Serbian government was to vote
for the communist candidates, which they did.
The treaty of Rapallo, November 1920, is taken

44 MONTENEGRO
by many as a final settlement of questions refer
ring to the Adriatic region. It has no clause re
ferring to Montenegro!
In December 1920, the French minister still ac
credited to the Kingdom of Montenegro finally
closed the account, with this statement:
"Elections to the constitutent assembly having
taken place recently in Jugoslavia, the people of
Montenegro have declared themselves: one can
not longer question their desire to remain united
with the other Serbian populations in the Serb-
Croat-Slovene realm whose existence we have
officially recognized. The government of the Re
public assumes, therefore, that the union of
Montenegro with the said realm is now an accom
plished fact."
The Montenegrin Government replied to the
French refusal to recognize its existence by a letter
dated January 10, 1921, in which these points
were made:
The Pact of London, in 1915, guaranteed the
future existence of Montenegro. The same guar
antees were affirmed in January, 1917, and in
August 1919. The Peace Congress recognized
Montenegro's righ* to be represented by a delegate
and promised that "a good opportunity would be
offered to the Montenegrin (people to express

THE OCCUPATION 45
themselves freely as to the political form of their
future government." This promise was never ful
filled. Even at that time the Serbian government
was exercising complete sovereignty and when an
"election" was held in November 1920, it was com
pletely under control of Serbia. The election was
called by authority of the Serbian Regent.
* * *
King Nicolas died in exile at Cape Antibes,
Cote d'Azur, March 1, 1921. Little Michael I,
now attending school in England, succeeds to
the title. The constitutional government, with
temporary headquarters in Rome and the thou
sands of loyal mountaineers who continue resist
ance to Serbia with considerable success, are the
present evidence of Montenegro's individuality.

VI.
America and Her Allies
WE Americans should have a better excuse
if we had never acknowledged the truth.
When President Wilson stated his "Four
teen Points," one of the few items that excited
no opposition, started no debate, was the demand
for restoration of Montenegro along with Bel
gium and the other little states that had entered
the war on the same basis.
One of the chief unanswered charges against
Mr. Wilson was his failure to carry out the pur
poses he himself had announced and the best
sentiment of America had repeatedly approved.
No feature of his program appealed more power
fully to the civilized world's sense of justice than
his insistence upon the self determination of small
nations. President Wilson went to Europe with a brief
case bulging with Peace Plans, any or all of
which he was willing to trade for support of his
League of Nations. When the diplomats had gone
through it nothing remained but the League. They
left that to the very competent hands of the
United States Senate.

AMERICA AND HER ALLIES 47
To specify only a few items, Mr. Wilson had
given up the freedom of the seas for England's
support; he had made a separate defensive alli
ance — never voluntarily submitted to Congress
for approval — with France and England to please
the former; he had held over distressed Italy a
threat of economic pressure. On the other hand
he had yielded Shantung to Japan while allowing
Serbia to swallow Montenegro and Dalmatia.
President Wilson went to Europe to lead
the oppressed peoples out of the desert into
the Promised Land, giving them a new version of
the Commandments. But the old order was too
strong for him. Those diplomatic priests and
levites made of him le bouc emissaire. They laid
upon his head the sins of the people and led him
out into the wilderness of words, and he never
found his way back.
In October, 1919, writing from Fiume in ref
erence to the conditions created by the Peace
Conference, I made the following statement :
"The conference is responsible for the confusion
which exists about the Fiume and Dalmatian
question. It has made a mistake and should
rectify it — it is a mistake, not a crime. The
crime is Montenegro — having wiped it off the face
of the map — not of the world, however — and
some day that crime must be atoned.

48 MONTENEGRO
But if the War President conveniently forgot
his own creed, the United States cannot do so.
One principle is an inseparable part of our his
tory. We accepted it and asserted it long before
Mr. Wilson was thought of as chief Executive.
Self-determination was really implied in the Mon
roe Doctrine, the refusal of the United States to
let Europe dictate to any of our weaker sisters in
South America or elsewhere on this continent.
We asserted the same principle and gave our blood
for it in the Cuban war, proving our own sincerity
by leaving the island when self-government was
assured. And whatever thought of our own inter
est may have acted as a motive in 1917, indigna
tion over the crime against Belgium was the un
quenchable fire that burned up every dry argu
ment against our entering the World War.
One of the first feelings of decent school boys
is hatred of a bully who is cruel to weaker lads.
The right-minded man never loses that feeling.
Germany bullied Belgium. The manhood of
the world fought her to a finish. But when
Serbia bullies Montenegro, nobody lifts a hand
to stop the outrage.
Why? Because Serbia has lied successfully and the
conscience of the world which hates lying has not
yet found her out. Or perhaps it would be more

AMERICA AND HER ALLIES 49
accurate though less flattering to say that we are
too lazy to seek out the truth and force correc
tion of the error.
Serbian activity in the court of public opinion
has been very cleverly directed. Much of what
her apologists proclaim so loudly is true. But
she suppresses just the vital elements whose ab
sence leads to a false conclusion. This is the way
she does it:
"The Serbians are a brave and progressive
race." "Montenegrins and Serbians have a common
origin." "Desire for an alliance or some form of con
federation has often been expressed in Monte
negro." Montenegro has been for over five centuries an
independent State. She has maintained that inde
pendence against incredibly superior forces. What
ever they may think about confederation or alli
ances, the Montenegrin people have never ex
pressed a wish to give up their existence as an
individual nation.
First of all Montenegro could not come to any
real decision or express any free choice as to her
destiny until she herself was free. It ought not
to be necessary to recall that axiomatic truth, yet
the whole case turns on that and it is never men
tioned in any of Serbia's manifestos.

50 MONTENEGRO
It was Serbia that precipitated the war by re
fusing to admit Austria's right even to send a
delegate to take part in the investigation of the
murder of the Austrian Archduke and Arch
duchess. On the same principle she ought to
have aided in restoring Montenegro to indepen
dence. When the government was re-established
it would have been time to treat on equal terms
as to confederation in a Jugoslavic state.
Viscount Gladstone gave it as his judgment
that Montenegro "could not be treated worse had
she fought on the side of the Central Powers."
Since the war, Serbia's attitude towards Monte
negro, unrebuked by her allies, has been that of
a conqueror toward a conquered enemy. Yet
strangely enough, even certain conquered terri
tories have been permitted to vote freely as to
their own disposition.
Under the Treaty of Versailles, Slesvig, the
Sarre Valley, East and West Prussia and upper
Silesia were permitted to decide their own destiny;
Eupen and Malmedy could register protests. And
much of the voting thus provided for has been
honestly accomplished according to the Official
Report. Montenegro has never been permitted to reg
ister a protest where it would do any good.

AMERICA AND HER ALLIES 51
One of the clearest and most impartial general
views of the war's results is given in Ralph
Graves' article "The New Map of Europe"
printed in The National Geographic Magazine.
He is holding no brief for or against anybody
but analyzing facts and stating present conditions.
These are his final paragraphs:
"In addition, the former Kingdom of Monte
negro has been absorbed. As to the former King
dom of Serbia, it would be perhaps more nearly
proper to speak of its expansion to include
Jugoslavia than of its 'absorption' by the new
state. It is the Serbian King Peter I, who occu
pies the throne of Jugoslavia in the capital city
of Belgrade.
"The new boundaries make Jugoslavia, a state
three times the size of pre-war Serbia, with a
population roughly estimated at 14,500,000 which
is more than three times that of Serbia in 1914."
There is nothing new in the program of those
ambitious masters of intrigue. It is only in recent
years that they have taken the trouble to mask
their designs. In 1908 the Minister of Foreign
Affairs openly addressed these words to the Ser
bian Chamber:
"We ought to have a war in Europe. We are
hoping that some unforeseen event will unchain

52 MONTENEGRO
it. Europe must give us the territory we demand
or we will engage in a great and bloody contest."
The desired war was precipitated. After the
event, in the same spirit the Serbian consul gen
eral at Odessa wrote in 1916 that his country
alone had won immortal glory, for although a
little state, "by hard work, from year to year she
succeeded in unchaining the world war." And
looking to a still more glorious future, he de
clared that Serbia ought to prepare, when this
conflict was over, for another war, to secure what
she has not yet obtained.
A Herald editorial of August 14, 1922 couples
the attempted extinction of Montenegro as a
separate state with the recent recognition by
Secretary Hughes of the Albanian Government.
The editorial goes on thus:
"It seems a peculiar dispensation of fate that
at the time when the Montenegrins are losing
statehood, the Albanians their enemies for cen
turies should acquire it. The Montenegrins have
a history rich in traditions of their struggles
against the Turks. Those Black Mountaineers
remained unconquered when all the remainder of
the Balkans had been subjugated by the Sultan's
armies. They were for centuries a Western bul
wark against the advance of the Moslem. The
Montenegrin chieftain's deeds of valor, like those

AMERICA AND HER ALLIES 53
of all the Serb races, were preserved in folk legend
and story and told by their Homeric bards to the
music of the guzla at all their public meeting
places. It was this constant recital of past hero
ism which inspired the Montenegrin's loyalty *o
his race and state."
The editorial recalls the fact that Montenegro
was obliged to give up Scutari to Albania after it
had been fairly captured in war, the Scripture
rule being reversed to read "To him that hath not
shall be given." But gifts to Albania have not
always been to its own advantage — for example,
the Powers handed her a foreign ruler, Prince
William of Wied!
"The Albanians knew nothing of him and he
knew as little of the Albanians. His reign lasted
for a few months and he was willing to abandon
his throne. Essad Pasha then went to live in the
palace which had been fitted up for the Prince
and remained there imagining himself king, until
the Austrian invasion ousted him. After the war
a provisional state was formed and a provisional
government took charge of affairs. It kept peace
and order through a turbulent period and relin
quished what power it had to the present govern
ment. "The state which has been formed is thus the
first substantially organized independent rule

54 MONTENEGRO
which the Albanians have had." What a contrast
to Montenegro, with her five hundred years of
independence.

VII.
History
TO get the full meaning of the present, we
must review rapidly the whole record of that
region. There is no more amazing narrative
in the book of time, and the last chapter is yet
unwritten. History has never posted up her ac
counts from the Montenegrin day-book.
This extraordinary people must be studied upon
their own soil. For the interaction of geography
and human nature never had a more brilliant
demonstration. Before the war, the rare traveler who was ad
venturous enough to leave popular tourist run
ways approached the Balkans by the Adriatic.
The green beauty of the Dalmatian coast only
serves to darken the mass of rock that rises like
no other mountain height in the world. These
hills are not brothers to the misty, dream-like,
Fujiyama or the snowy shining Alps. They are
deeply carven and harshly modeled into strange

HISTORY 55
shapes. The violent winds that rage through their
gullies drop few seeds and those that fall rarely
germinate. "Only a brave race could live there" one says
to himself, and he is right.
At Cattaro, the port of this region, the water
fills a group of narrow indentations like the spaces
between a man's fingers. The old man of the
mountain seems to be washing a mighty hand in
the Adriatic. This is the famous Bocche di Cat
taro. In the old days it was Austrian territory,
an hour's drive from the Montenegrin border.
On the north and west rise the hills of Herze
govina. Mount Lovtchen makes an almost sheer
wall over a mile high. The road, a superb piece
of engineering, is a kind of Jacob's ladder from
earth to heaven.
The only village between the Austrian border
and Cettinje is Niegotch, where King Nicolas
was born. It was the birthplace also of Danilo I,
founder of the Petrovitch dynasty. Montenegro's
rulers were cradled in these rocks. On the height
above is buried Peter II, lawgiver of earlier
centuries. Another hour's drive brings one to Cettinje —
as for those incredible mountaineers, it would
not be safe to say what time one of them might
make on foot. The story goes that King Nico-

56 MONTENEGRO
las wanting to send a despatch to Cattaro, gave
it to Michael, a famous mountain climber.
As his Majesty came from dinner, he saw the
messenger sitting in the corridor.
"Why don't you start for Cattaro?" he asked.
"Gospodor, I have just come back!" was the
proud answer.
"Michael the Telegram!" exclaimed the witty
monarch. And Michael the Telegram he was
called for the rest of his life.
It is like reading the stories of the Old Testa
ment to follow the lore of this land. Her princes
lived with their people, fought with them and
heard their pleas for justice, like Saul and David
and Solomon of old.
Montenegro is the Switzerland of the Balkans.
And the character of her people matches her
mountains. What they have accomplished is a
miracle and it is conceivable at all only in the
perfect union of man with nature. Those moun
taineers grow like trees rooted in the crevices of
the rocks, rejoicing wrestlers with the wind, tem
pest-proof. On an earlier page Viscount Glad
stone's testimony was quoted. His famous father,
William E. Gladstone, declared, many years ago:
"The gallant feats of Montenegro surpass those
of the heroes of Thermopylae and Marathon."
An old Montenegrin told a visitor that he had

HISTORY 57
once traveled, as far away as "the lands that have
no rocks."
"How people can live there," he added, "I do
not understand."
Yet with all their superlative vigor, they are
not of a troublesome type. Murder, robbery or
crimes of any sort are rare. They marry young,
rear large families and care for them faithfully.
With all its frightful losses, the population fairly
held its own up to the World War.
There was no standing army in the earlier days.
Every man was a soldier and owned his weapons.
When danger arose, the trumpet-voiced heroes
shouted the summons from mountain to moun
tain and in twenty-four hours the nation was
ready for battle. Boys who were kept at home
because they were too young have been known to
leap from their windows and run away to war.
The women are as warlike as the men. They
have often taken part in battle. They hear of
their sons' death in war with dry eyes.
In 1076 a sovereign state existed there, not
unlike the early Roman Republic in character.
It acquired a national council, which chose a
regent by vote.
The "strong man" has usually been present in
these mountain states, but they have given evi
dence of an independent spirit through all their

kUSTR A
HUNGARY

RUSSIA

r  ' >

A F R 1 C A

Map published in the London Graphic April 1920, showing the Bal
kans in the Seventeenth Century, the only country unconquered by the
Turk being Montenegro.

HISTORY 59
history. They were proud of their great leaders,
Stephen Dushan (1337-1356) and the Tsar Lazar,
under whom the peoples of that region made
their united stand against the Turks at Kossova
in 1389. Their defeat marked the end of an era.
But Montenegro survived. The present Serb apol
ogists make far too much of the early Serbian
kingdom, which lasted only three centuries as
against more than five in which Montenegro has
maintained her independence, much of the time
being the only Balkan nation to do so.
The Montenegrins cherish quite as warmly as
the Serbians the glories of their common period
before the battle of Kossova. The Tsar Lazar is
celebrated in their folk-songs, exactly as you will
find Kentucky mountaineers singing old English
ballads, handed down from colonists of the Seven
teenth Century. But it does not follow that
America must be reunited to England or Monte
negro to Serbia!
After the battle the heroic remnant withdrew
toward Tsernagora, the Black Mountain, now
Montenegro. And under pressure of the haras
sing Turk they steadily climbed, through the
course of a century, to more secure heights. The
desperate struggle up the hill welded all their
forces and made of them a true nation.
In 1484, a final stand was made on the site of

60 MONTENEGRO
Cettinje, the modern capital. At one time or
another, this little stronghold has been captured,
and burned and blown to bits. But the soul of
Montenegro immortally defies every assault from
above or below.
A landmark of civilization is the Metropolitan
Monastery of Cettinje. On that site, half a thou
sand years ago, was set up the first Slavonic print
ing press, and the first State press owned by any
government in the world.
It was more than a century before Columbus
discovered America when the long contest with
the Turk began. Montenegro overlooks the gate
through which the East tried to enter Europe.
On the map it looks like a mere pin head. But
the point of that pin became an unendurable
irritation in Turkey's side and helped to save
Europe from entire domination by the Orient.
The odds were a thousand to one in the Turk's
favor — so far as numbers go. Through all that
region, he appeared to be the predestined con
queror. His hand closed upon the north; to the
south, Africa was drowned in the flood of his
legions. Montenegro remained like a new Mount
Ararat upon which the ark rested after the deluge.
It is the Montenegrins' boast that in all the
years of their warfare their enemies have taken
no prisoners. They fight to the last and when

HISTORY 61
they find themselves in danger of capture die by
their own hands. The fact remains to substan
tiate their claim that when there was a general
release of prisoners at the Congress of Berlin,
in 1878, the Montenegrins gave up 10,000 Turks
but the Turks had not a man of theirs to return
the compliment.
Napoleon cast his eye on that strategic terri
tory and sent General Marmont to annex it. The
Turks perceived their chance, and while the
French attacked on one side, they returned to the
charge on the other. But even that union of
powers failed to win. General Marmont sent word
to his chief that the country was too small for a
great force to enter. Napoleon was not im
pressed by the excuse, but he permitted his forces
to withdraw.
This long strife lasted intermittently till 1913.
There were many generations of which few men
of fighting age died in their beds. It came to be
considered a questionable honor, under the cir
cumstances, to escape a violent end.

VIII.
Conclusion
Where the Turk and Napoleon failed, the Serb
cannot hope to win. The apparent success of
Belgrade schemes was possible only because of
a complete overturn of world affairs.
A new state like Jugoslavia must have strong
elements of cohesion to hold together through its
formative years. Already there are signs of
trouble. Croatia is evidently seeking a way out
of the group. The later efforts of Serbia to float
loans have met unexpected difficulties. A fierce
guerilla war in the Black Mountain goes on and
will continue until the usurpers withdraw.
Montenegro cannot be conquered. She will go
on fighting till she fights her way back, though it
take a century!
There is a latent consciousness in other nations
of their responsibility for permitting Montenegro
to be wronged by an Ally. They know that she
entered the war before Belgium and that if they
had given King Nicolas the same support they

CONCLUSION 63
gave King Albert, Montenegro would now be
enjoying a well-deserved independence.
The slow inevitable reaction against the false
propaganda of Serbia is setting in. Her success
depended upon the complete subsidence of Bal
kan trouble and upon the selfish feeling on the
part of other nations that their own comfort
could be secured by letting sleeping dogs lie.
There will, however, be little rest for the peace
fully inclined nations till the maladjustments are
corrected. In March, 1917, I said, in an address on "The
Question of Alsace and Lorraine" :
"Let us remember that the future peace of the
world, of America itself, will not be assured if
the war ends otherwise than by the return to
their cradles of all peoples who have been robbed
from their mother countries, and the integral
restitution of all the thefts committed by Germany
and Austria in the last century, of Poland, of
Schleswig-Holstein, of Triest, of Alsace, of Lor
raine of Herzegovina and of Bosnia."
It was in the following year that Serbia placed
an arbitrary hand upon Montenegro. Time will
correct that injustice as the older historic wrongs
are already righted or in process of being set
right. But why run the risk of another war,

64 MONTENEGRO
when present action would remove the most ob
vious incitements to conflict?
Up to the present, the case has been going by
default. Many who sympathize with Montenegro
say that it is too late to dislodge the usurper,
possession being nine points of the law. But
Serbia's possession has never been complete.
Others say that America must not interfere in
Europe's affairs. This is not a case of meddling,
for the annexation of Montenegro was accom
plished during its "occupation" by an Allied army
while America was one of the Allies. We are fur
ther pledged through promises made at the Peace
Congress. And these promises were known to the
people of the United States and never disavowed.
America shed her best blood to free Cuba,
simply because tyranny to a neighbor was intol
erable. Is she not in honor bound to keep her
promise to these brave people who trusted her
word? Without endangering herself in the least, this
nation can exert a helpful influence in the present
crisis. In a perfectly courteous diplomatic fashion
she can make it plain to Serbia and the rest of
the world that she favors a just and full con
sideration of Montenegro's case, and that she will
not continue to stand for betrayal of an Ally.
When the forces of liberty and justice within
and without act in harmony, Montenegro will be
restored.