he
Admiral's memorial, which was marked with wisdom but also with a
too-sweeping air of superiority, was labelled "Secret Document: No. 558
of Register P. Section of Propaganda. Sebenico, March 21, 1919." A copy
was found by the Yugoslavs under an officer's mattress, was transcribed
and replaced. Since it made admissions with regard to the Croats the
contents were telegraphed to Paris. It is a lengthy and to us at times a
rather rhetorical expose, of which it will suffice to make some
extracts. "The Officer," says Admiral Millo, "should place himself in a
calm and dignified fashion outside and above the disputes which divide
the sentiments of the local population. And in accounting,
psychologically and historically, for the detestations and the
aspirations of either party, he must regard the situation with the
serene mind of a judge.... The position of officers is extremely
delicate, more particularly in the small centres. It is known that
outside the towns the population in its great majority and often its
totality consists of Yugo-Slavs or Slavs of the South, that is to say,
Croats or Serbo-Croats. It is a people of another race, of that
formidable Slav race which for centuries has been pressing against the
West, athirst for liberty and eager for the sea; a people with a
psychology, a mentality, a civilization, habits, traditions, a national
consciousness and a quite special individuality. This population is
fundamentally good, good as simple and primitive people are. But the
simple and primitive peoples are also extremely sensitive and suspicious
and violent in their impulses.... May Heaven preserve the officers from
not taking these things into account and from letting themselves be
guided solely by their Italian feelings.... Firm nerves, sangfroid and
an evenly-balanced mind are required in order to prevent the hostility
of the population from causing, as a reaction, resentment and a spirit
of revolt, of vengeance and of oppression on our part. The officer must
... become an element of moderation and pacification, with the object of
assuaging and obviating the bitter feelings which have been created and
fed by a past that is and must be wiped out for ever; and of dissipating
that hostility which, determined by a political situation and events,
has been and is being incited and strengthened by blind passions and an
artificially created campaign of interested parties (_da artificiose
interessate campagna_).... It must