ne to stand still, bare-headed, when
they passed; they would not allow anyone to leave the island, and
forbade the peasants to speak Croatian! On the opposite island of Silba
(Selve) the schoolmaster, Matulina, and the priest, an old man of
seventy-five, called Lovrovi['c], were imprisoned. The latter had told
his parishioners, in the course of a sermon, to behave well during Lent
and keep away from the Italian sailors. He was thereupon shipped to
Zadar and thrust into a moist and dirty dungeon, where for two days and
nights he was at the mercy of six criminals.... After having seen at
Zadar a number of persons belonging to each party, I had the pleasure of
meeting Dr. Boxich. It was indeed a pleasure, because this thin,
highly-strung Italianized Slav, the former chief of the Radical Italian
party, was full of the most fraternal sentiments towards the Slavs. If,
he said, their peasants lacked education, one ought to assist them; not
to do so was a sin against humanity. It had been the desire, he said, of
his party, both before and during the War, to work openly against the
Austrian Government, unlike the Moderate Italian party, of Ziliotto,
which feigned to be very pro-Austrian. While Ziliotto was receiving high
Austrian decorations, he was an object of persecution, and was obliged
to go away and live for two and a half years in Rome. Ziliotto, he said,
was Zadar's evil spirit, seeing that he had thoroughly deceived and
betrayed Italy--so many of those who now called themselves good Italians
had been very good Austrians, and would as readily have turned into good
Americans or Frenchmen. So petty and local was Ziliotto's party, with
no idea of the world or of freedom. In fact, I thought that if a
Yugoslav had listened to the doctor's eloquence he would have overlooked
a recent lapse or two, when Boxich, in order to prove to Admiral Millo
that he was a much better Italian than Ziliotto, was alleged by the
Yugoslavs to have committed various dark deeds in connection with a hunt
for hidden arms. The Admiral also had told me that he was not pleased
with Dr. Boxich. "At present," said the doctor to me, "I am isolated,
and I am proud of it. This is not the time to found a party of ideas;
the atmosphere is too morbid, too passionate. This is the time," he
said, "for an honourable man to remain isolated and to stay at home."
... Several weeks after this at Sarajevo, I read in a Zagreb newspaper, the
_Rije['c] S.H.S._, that Dr. Box