ian troops did not arrive until November 6, and in
many parts of Bosnia not until the end of the month. And yet in the
whole country, with people on the track of those who in the pay of
Austria had denounced or murdered their relatives, and with the poor
_kmet_ at last able to rise against the oppressive landlord, there were
in the first six months under fifty murders, and these were mostly due
to the desperate straits of the Montenegrins, who came across the
frontier in search of provisions, during which forays they assassinated
various people. In the Sandjak of Novi Bazar there was no doubt less
security; but to anyone who knew, say the Rogatica district, under
Austria's very capable administration, it will seem that Bosnia, after
the collapse, was singularly tranquil. Anyhow the population, in the
summer of 1919, were living on much more amicable terms with one another
than for many years. The Government met with some criticism, for it was
alleged to be reserving all the lucrative appointments for the Serbs;
one had to take into account, however, that it was the Serbs who had
been chiefly ruined by the War, and it was just that the concessions for
the sale of tobacco, for the railway restaurants and so forth, should
be, for the greater part, given to them. Nevertheless it may interest
travellers to know that the restaurateurs at the stations of Ilid[vz]e
and Zenica are Catholics--the Moslems are not yet very competent in such
affairs. They are, as their own leaders sadly confess, the least
cultured and the least progressive class. As elsewhere in Islam there
has been a total lack of female education--the mothers of the Sarajevo
Moslem _intelligentsia_ can neither read nor write, while their sons are
cultivated people who speak several languages. A change is being
made--there are already five Moslem lady teachers employed in the mixed
Government schools; this a few years ago would have been thought
impossible. It is to be deplored that these divisions into Moslem and
Orthodox and Catholic should be perpetrated--the Moslem leaders look
forward to the time, in a few years, when their deputies will no longer
group themselves apart on account of their religion; but it is unwise to
introduce too many simultaneous innovations, considering that the
illiterates of Bosnia number about 90 per cent. of the population. The
Yugoslav idea will prosper in this country; and, by the way, while you
meet an occasional Serb who hankers for