, stately Admiral, Senator of the Kingdom, had
not begun as yet to make that series of buccaneering speeches, and he
courteously told us, more than once, that he could permit of nothing
which would outrage public order. He was much afraid that if we went
back to the islands we would be the cause of lamentable scenes; in fact
he could not let us go without an order from his Government. "These
islands," he said, "are not yet ours; we are occupying them, as you
know, in the name of the Entente and the United States. You have the
right," he said, "to go there; but, unfortunately, if you do, the
population will give way, as they have done already, to excesses." Since
the last thing that we wished was for the islanders to bring us flowers
and cheer the name of Wilson--in view of what these crimes entailed--we
suggested that a small number, four or five of each party--those who
desired to be with Yugoslavia and those who preferred Italy--should in
succession come to us on board. Naturally we should be unable to do so
if we had to visit any inland place; and after a prolonged argument the
Admiral agreed to this plan. We returned to Hvar.

THE AFFAIRS OF HVAR

The subordinate Admiral, from Kor[vc]ula, had come across on a destroyer
and was kind enough to tell us at considerable length what were his
views on local and international affairs. He frankly appealed to us--and
his humorous blue eyes were radiating frankness--to survey the whole
matter in a broad, statesmanlike fashion. But we were less ambitious; we
desired merely to be the mouthpiece of both parties. Those who first
came on board were the Italianists, and I hope I shall not be considered
unfair if I employ this word rather than "Italians" for a body of men,
most of whom are admittedly devoid of any Italian blood and whose
Italian sympathies are of very recent growth. This class numbers 9 per
cent. of the population of the town. Their chief point seemed to be that
the Church was opposed to them, because there was no room for
clericalism in Italy (!); and the only other point worth mentioning was
that Austria was to blame for the phylloxera which had played havoc with
their vines. Among the Yugoslavs who succeeded these gentlemen there was
an elderly priest, a canon, who related that some carabinieri--no doubt
in order to display to all men that Italy had shaken herself free from
clerical obscurantism--entered the church while the bishop was
officiating, and hoisted