of the men had their own guns;
those who had not would be lent one at the village office on the
understanding that it was brought back there when the emergency was
over. These Defence Companies were joined in the spring by 2000 of the
proletariat of Vienna who, at the railway station before they started,
were cheered by speeches on the subject of plunder; at Graz they were
joined by some students who proposed to maintain order.... It was in
April that the Germans began nearly every day to fire on the Yugoslav
troops, regardless of the Americans, who said that any infringement of
the Armistice would be severely punished. The Slovene bridgehead around
Velikovec was, towards the end of April, bombarded for several days with
heavy artillery, and the local commander, on his own initiative, crossed
the Armistice line in order to seize this artillery; he did, in fact,
carry off some twenty pieces, with which he returned to his old
positions. This caused the Germans to send through Zurich most indignant
telegrams to the Entente Press, denouncing the Yugoslavs for having
flagrantly crossed the Armistice line by 10 kilometres (cf. _Le
Journal_, for example, of May 5). In the same report they were held up
as villains for having crossed the river Drave at several points and cut
the railway line; as a matter of fact their infantry was at least 11
kilometres to the south of the Drave, and the artillery, of course,
still farther off. This railway line, which was the means of
communication between Austrians and Italians, was the subject of very
fierce talk on the part of the latter. All this time, be it remembered,
the Slovenes had feeble forces; and their own officers do not pretend
that they approach the Serbs as combatants. After centuries of
servitude--a more insidious servitude than if their masters had been
Moslem--they have now awakened to devote themselves, and with great
success, to agriculture and industry. Nevertheless the old fighting
spirit of the Slav has not been quite extinguished in them. Their
opponents on May 2 made a big attack upon Celovec (Klagenfurt) and
Beljak (Villach), where they had at their disposal the munitions of the
entire 10th Austrian army. Several battalions had come down from Vienna,
as well as 340 unemployed Austrian ex-officers, who were clothed as
infantry privates. These officers were serving for the love of their
country--up to May 1 at all events they were in receipt of no pay. The
Slovene rank