ing the officers' families from the
Sanjak, and complete evacuation would follow. She dropped also the
Uvatz-Mitrovitza railway scheme which the Young Turks seemed not
over-willing to permit.

Moslem wrath, fierce against Austria, was further excited by the
arrival of malcontent Moslems from the annexed provinces, who had
thrown up their businesses and emigrated to the Young Turks. A
curio-dealer from Mostar, whom I knew, was among them He and his
friends had all believed that the Turkish revolution meant that
Bosnia-Herzegovina would be the Sultan's once more. I asked why
there had been no rising, and he explained humorously that, except
his wife's scissors, he had no weapon to rise with. The "Schwabs"
had called in all knives big enough to fight with, some weeks before
the annexation was proclaimed.

A Moslem demonstration took place outside the Austrian consulate.
The consular staff sent for Browning pistols, and insisted on
ordering one for me, too, as declared my lodgings outside the town
were dangerous. There was a whirlpool of contrary currents. Just
before the Turkish revolution took place Essad Bey, who was aware of
what was going on but, characteristically, meant to keep clear till
he knew which was the winning side, applied for leave to go abroad
for his health, which appeared excellent, and abroad he remained
till Young Turk victory was certain.

In the first frenzy of joy, over what they believed to be the coming
reign of liberty and justice, one of the cries of the townsfolk had
been: "Now if Essad ever dares come back they will hang him, and
give back all the lands and monies he has stolen!" Essad, however,
outwitted the Young Turks as easily as he later outwitted the
British Foreign Office. Whatever happened, he would be "butter-side
uppermost." He announced that he, too, was a Young Turk, and
returned in triumph as a member of the Committee of Union and
Progress. This did more in Scutari to shake all faith in the new
regime than anything else. Excitement grew. War was expected at any
moment. Serbia and Montenegro were reported to have mobilized, and
all frontiers were armed. On October 28th I find in my diary: "Had
urgent appeal to go to Belgrade, but decided not--I don't want to
get badly mixed in their politics." The Montenegrins were all for
war, and the wildest reports reached us of Prince George of Serbia's
efforts to precipitate it.

Russia, still reeling from her Japanese thrashing and torn