April eggs were 80 centimes apiece, while at Bakar, a few miles
away, they cost 25 centimes; milk at Rieka was 6 crowns the litre and at
Bakar one crown; beef was 30 crowns a kilo and at Bakar 8 crowns. Italy
was calling Rieka her pearl--a pearl of great price; the Yugoslavs said
it was the lung of their country. It is within the knowledge of the
Italianists that the prosperity of Rieka would not be advanced by making
her the last of a chain of Italian ports, but rather by making her the
first port of Yugoslavia. What has Italy to offer in comparison with the
Slovenes and the Croats? The maritime outlet of the Save valley, as well
as of the plains of Hungary beyond it, is, as Sir Arthur Evans points
out, the port of Rieka. And, in view of the mountainous nature of the
country which lies for a great distance at the back of Split and of
Dubrovnik, it would seem that Rieka--and especially when the railway
line has been shortened--will be the natural port of Belgrade.

THE TURNCOAT MAYOR

One cannot expect in a place with Rieka's history that such
considerations as these will be debated, calmly or otherwise, but at all
events on their own merits. They will be approached with more than
ordinary passion, since so many of the people of Rieka have been
turncoats. Any man who changes sides in his religion or his nationality
or politics--presuming, and I hope this mostly was so at Rieka, that his
reasons were not base--that man will feel profoundly on these matters,
more profoundly than the average person of his new religion, nationality
or politics. He will observe the ritual, he will give utterance to his
thoughts with such an emphasis that his old comrades will dislike him
and his new associates be made uneasy. Thus a convert may not always be
the most delightful creature in the garden, and he is abundant at Rieka.
As an illustration we may study Dr. Vio. Many persons have repeated that
he has a Croat father, yet they should in fairness add that his father's
father came from Venice. But if he came from Lapland, that ought to be
no reason why the present Dr. Vio should not, if he so desires, be an
Italian. If he had, when he arrived at what is usually called the age of
discretion, inscribed himself among the sons of Italy--_a la bonheur_.
But he took no such step. He came out as a Croat of the Croats, for when
he had finished his legal studies he became a town official, but
discovered that his views--for he was known as an u