ssor of Theology. At Martin[vs]['c]ica, he
says, there is not a single Italianist; the entire village is Yugoslav.
When the Italian military arrived the lieutenant insisted that the
priest, Karlo Hla['c]a, should cease to sing the Mass in Old Slav, and
that for the whole service he should use Italian, the only language,
said the lieutenant, which he (the lieutenant) understood. It was futile
for the priest to demonstrate what a ridiculous and unreasonable demand
this was; the lieutenant always came back to the subject, being sometimes
merely importunate and sometimes using menaces. As Hla['c]a was a model
ecclesiastic, highly esteemed by his parishioners, the lieutenant
comprehended that as long as this priest remained, he would be foiled in
his endeavours; he therefore sought an opportunity to turn him out. On
January 5, 1919, the priest had, by order of his bishop, to read during
the service a pastoral letter on the duties of the faithful towards the
Church and towards their fellow-men; he had also to add a simple and
concise commentary. In this letter there was a passage dealing with
schools, and the priest on that topic remarked that "by divine and human
law every nation may ask that its children should be instructed in their
mother tongue." When Mass was finished, the mayor of the village
assembled the parishioners and notified them that henceforward, by order
of the lieutenant, there would no longer be in the village a Croatian
but an Italian school. And in order to mollify the people he added that
the lieutenant proposed to give subsidies to such as stood in need; they
had only to present themselves before that officer. But, though the
people often found it hard to satisfy their simple wants and were at
that period in very great distress, they walked away from this assembly
without making one step in the lieutenant's direction. This incited him
to such fury that he ran, accompanied by soldiers and carabinieri, to
the priest, and publicly, in a loud voice, insulted him, calling him an
intriguer, a rebel, an agitator. On the following day the lieutenant had
him conducted to the village of Cres by two soldiers and a carabiniere,
who were all armed.... At Cres the priest was brought before the
commanding officer of the Quarnero Islands--our old acquaintance, the
naval captain of Krk--who happened to be in this village. He started at
once to bellow at the priest and, striking the table with his hand,
exclaimed: "This is