g Tirnovo and its neighbourhood. But it was quite
a centre of all the best things that we Serbs created and possessed in
our past. Our national soul cannot live without this part of our
national body. I remember a conversation in Nish between a French sailor
and a Serbian writer. The French sailor said: "But you will perish if
you do not give Macedonia to the Bulgars?" The Serbian writer replied
quietly: "Let us perish for the sake of our soul!" An English gentleman
asked me the other day: "Why have you been obstinate in not yielding
Macedonia to the Bulgars, while we even are ready to yield to the
Greeks, offering them Cyprus?" "Yes," I said, "we can well appreciate
your sacrifice, but still Prilep for us is rather what Stratford--and
not Cyprus--is for you. And even I, not being an Englishman, could never
agree that you should offer Shakespeare's birthplace to anybody in the
world."

Perhaps the Bulgars would not have attacked us in this war if we had
given Macedonia to them, although it is not certain, because the
frontiers of their ambitions are in Constantinople, Salonica and on the
Adriatic. Still Serbia could not barter her soul like Faust with
Mephistopheles. Five hundred years ago the Serbs and Greeks defended
Macedonia from the Turkish invasion. In 1912 it was Serbia with Greece
again who liberated Macedonia from the Turkish yoke. Bulgaria never
defended Macedonia from the Turks. Her first fighting for Macedonia was
in 1913 against Serbs, Greeks and Roumanians. And Serbia sacrificed not
only many things and many lives for Macedonia, but twice even her
independence--once five hundred years ago, and for the second time at
the present moment. _Yes, Serbia is now killed because of Macedonia._
Indeed, all Serbia's fighting and suffering have been because of
Macedonia. She fought against the Turks because of Macedonia. She fought
against the Bulgars because of Macedonia. And she now is losing her
independence because of Macedonia. Because she could not give Macedonia,
which means her glory, her history, her poetry, her soul, she is now
trodden down and killed. Serbia could not live without Macedonia. Serbia
did what she could--she died for Macedonia. And if one day, God willing,
from this blessed island should sound the trumpet for the Resurrection
for all the dead, killed by the German sword, I hope Serbia will rise
from her grave together with Macedonia, as one body and one soul.

Serbia and the World-War.

I