uch
preferred taking chances with snipers' bullets to the discomfort of a
destroyer in an ugly sea; and that, having journeyed six thousand miles
for the express purpose of seeing what was happening in the Balkans, we
would be disappointed if nothing happened at all.

When I left Paris for the Adriatic I carried with me the impression, as
the result of conversations with members of the various peace
delegations, that the people of Montenegro were almost unanimously in
favor of annexation to Serbia, thereby becoming a part of the new
Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. But before I had spent
twenty-four hours in Montenegro itself I discovered that on the subject
of the political future of their little country the Montenegrins are
very far from being of the same mind. And, being a simple, primitive
folk, and strong believers in the superiority of the bullet to the
ballot, instead of sitting down and arguing the matter, they take cover
behind a convenient rock and, when their political opponents pass by,
take pot-shots at them.

My preconceived opinions about political conditions in Montenegro were
largely based on the knowledge that shortly after the signing of the
Armistice a Montenegrin National Assembly, so called, had met at
Podgoritza, and, after declaring itself in favor of the deposition of
King Nicholas and the Petrovitch dynasty, which has ruled in Montenegro
since William of Orange sat on the throne of England, voted for the
union of Montenegro with the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
Just how representative of the real sentiments of the nation was this
assembly I do not know, but that the sentiment in favor of such a
surrender of Montenegrin independence is far from being overwhelming
would seem to be proved by the fact that the Serbs, in order to hold the
territory thus given to them, have found it necessary to install a
Serbian military governor in Cetinje, to replace by Serbs all the
Montenegrin prefects, to raise a special gendarmerie recruited from men
who are known to be friendly to Serbia and officered by Serbs, and to
occupy this sister-state, which, it is alleged, requested union with
Serbia of its own free will, with two battalions of Serbian infantry. If
Montenegrin sentiment for the union is as overwhelming as Belgrade
claims, then it seems to me that the Serbs are acting in a rather
high-handed fashion.

I talked with a good many people while I was in Montenegro, and I was
e