ps. But Mr. M'Neill, M.P., is
very angry with the Serbs for spreading, as he says, reports
discreditable to the King of Montenegro--if he knew a little more I
think that he would say a good deal less--and Nikita must have
deprecated the remark that no facilities at all had been given by the
Great Powers to enable him and his Ministers to return to Montenegro.
If every Serbian soldier were to be withdrawn the country would, with
a tremendous majority, have been adverse to the ex-King and his
family. This was recognized by Danilo when his father suggested that
he should go out in the autumn of 1918. On December 5 he replied from
Cap Martin saying that the appendicitis from which he had suffered
since the War prevented him even from going into the garden. Mr.
M'Neill and a few similar enthusiasts are not weary of repeating that
the Serbs and the Montenegrins are quite distinct peoples. This, no
doubt, is Mr. M'Neill's opinion, and if he wishes to retain it he is
welcome to do so. But I should like to refer his audiences in the
House of Commons and elsewhere to the Patriarch Brki['c] of Pe['c],
who wrote in the eighteenth century concerning some of the Turkish
provinces. No one would pretend that Brki['c] was profoundly versed in
philology or in ethnography, and I believe he studied the Slav
languages not any more than does Mr. M'Neill. He was a Montenegrin
whose education had been that of an ordinary pupil in a monastery. He
spoke the Southern dialect, and in his eyes all those who had another
accent were not veritable Serbs. Even in our time there are many
Montenegrins whom it is quite difficult to convince that they are not
the only true Serbs.

THE BURDEN OF AUSTRIA'S SOUTHERN SLAV TROOPS

Meanwhile Austria's Yugoslav soldiers and sailors had been continuing
their patriotic work. On February 2, 1918, a telegram was sent to the
Army High Command at Baden (near Vienna). [This message is No. 974. It
concerns itself with the Austrian navy, in whose ranks Sarkoti['c]
perceives agitation. The rest of the message consists chiefly of the
drastic remedies which the writer would apply.]

There follows a document, numbered 106,116, and dated May 5, 1918, in
which the disaffection of Slovene troops is described. Not only have
anti-dynastic ones been raised, but a N.C.O. has torn off his two
Austrian decorations and has stamped on them, while troops have worn
their national colours in their caps, though this is only authorized