FIUME-THE MARTYR OF UNIVERSAL BLUNDERS SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE BY BRUNO ROSELLI IF you have traveled at all in Musso- ^ lini's own Italy, where the railway officials have been ordered to stop presenting a yearly deficit of one bill­ ion lire to the Italian taxpayers "under penalty of fine or imprisonment," and have therefore met the increasing de­ mand for space by decreasing supply, you are probably acquainted with that tempestuous performance of assault­ ing a train in search of an elusive seat, which is daily repeated at Flor­ ence, Bologna, and Venice when the express bound for Austria, Jugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia thunders in under the re-echoing glass dome. For there is a tradition that on an unnamed day of an unnamed year one of the cars of the train marked "Roman-Wien," "Roman-Belgrad," and "Roman-Pra- THE PORT OF FIUME AND THE TROUBLESOME DELTA ha" had one seat which was not fully and legally occupied when the express perhaps of their last whitewash of Governor, then of d'Annurizio, the steamed out of the Eternal City. Such nine years ago; the enormous ware­ mythical comandante. How well I re­ legends, you know, are difficult to re­ houses, fast asleep; the idle cranes; member seeing it in 1920 surrounded fute, even by the most hardened the barred windows of the world- by the stout-hearted young Arditi, facchino. renowned Armstrong torpedo factory, spiritual ancestors of to-day's Fas- But it was exactly one of those oldest and best in the world. To the cisti, mounting guard by the thickets hardened porters who taught me how left, a row of picturesque Istrian vil­ of laurel trees to protect their inde­ to find a seat in that very train—if lages—Italy. To the right, a row of fatigable and increasingly irresponsi­ not quite to destination, at least for picturesque Croatian villages—Jugo­ ble leader, who had defied the world the whole night—by attacking the last slavia. Just like two terra-cotta dogs and robbed Italy of an empire in order car of the train marked "Roman- facing each other right and left of a to present her with this little town, Fiume." "Take this, and change at gate. And between them the Gate—a which she was not allowed to accept, San Pietro del Carso to-morrow morn­ time-honored, history-making Gate— after all! And now I was made to ing," ordered my mentor; and I found shut tight. live once more the tragedy of the myself in a car far from overloaded, The Moschiena passed close to a "Bloody Christmas" of 1920, when the since I had only fifty-five fellow- Italian regulars had to shell the Ital­ passengers in a car seating fifty-six buoy on her right—a buoy sur­ mounted by a large Jugoslav flag. A ian irregulars out of Fiume; for the people. And what a pretty collection Fiumani have purposely left the pal­ of multicolored labels, forms, stamped Fiumano spat at it, with an oath and a horrible grin. That flag continues, ace untouched after the bombardment, permits, and passes did they show to barely covering with boards the ugly the conductor when he came through! exactly three miles out at sea, the boundary between Jugoslavia and the gaping holes; while above the tragic I believe I was the only passenger who building the Tricolor of Italy, waved was not a Fiuman oificial, an Italian Free State of Fiume, and if an Italian or a Fiuman boat by mistake enters by both sides in the fraternal combat, official, or a Jugoslav official in that floats solemnly, not even accompanied car; for such a life the former com­ the intervening waters the Croat town of Susak begins to shoot. It is a bat­ by the official Fiume flag. And in mercial metropolis of the northeastern order to legalize this apparent ille­ Adriatic lives, or pretends to live. tle without quarter between these two civilizations. And it began over two gality, the Fiumani have given those When I changed cars at San Pietro rooms in the palace which are still del Carso, I had vowed that I would thousand years ago, when this town, which now takes its name from the habitable to the Italian Legation, once more revisit Fiume, which I had which of course enjoys the usual dip­ not seen since the days of d'Annun- fiume (or river) Eneo, which sepa­ rates it from Jugoslavia, was called lomatic privilege of flying its home zio's colorful adventure; and it was flag unaccompanied by local emblems. with envy that I bade adieu to the Tarsatica, and became the outpost of Rome in her campaigns against the A clever arrangement. But then prosaic car and its untalkative cargo Fiume, denied a hearing by the Allies as it sped toward the town which I Liburnian pirates. The city itself (let not love be and a seat by the League of Nations, had hailed three years ago as "The has become a pa:st-master in ruse and Citadel of Heroic Unreality." blind!) is hopelessly ugly. Still, this weird town, with its Italian popula­ expediency. Her own little uniformed Twenty days later I fulfilled my force must be distinguishable from vow. I reached Fiume from the sea— tion, its Austrian belief in the omnip­ otence of government, its Hungarian that of Italy? Very well, she has a sea not less glorious and far more given them complete Italian infantry invigorating than that around Naples, architecture, and its Slav hinterland, is a most fascinating place to visit for uniforms except for the tiny mostrine, but, alas! totally deserted. The little or strips of silk, one inch by three, on Moschiena, carrying its handful of any one who can read the elusive les­ sons of history on the leaves scattered the collar, which vary with every Italian mail from Zara, advanced Italian brigade and which here hap­ plaintively in the immense Bay of the sybil-like by any genius loci or presid­ ing local divinity. Take the palazzo pen to have the Fiume colors. She is Quarnero. In front of us spread the not allowed to, use ^ Italian postage- pretentious whitish palaces, dreaming or former residence of the Hungarian 403

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 4(M TTfE QfU^TIityWir f November stempg? V«ry well. She will have her own set, with the following pic­ tures: 2 centeeimi, the head of Italia; 5 centesimi, the Capitoline wolf suck­ ling Romulus and Remus; 10 cen­ tesimi, the hoisting of the Italian flag on the municipal palace when the Armistice was signed; 15 centesimi, d'Annunzio's bony and hairless skull; 25 centesimi, the Roman Arch of Fiume; 50 centesimi, a distant view of the city, with a child waving a huge Italian flag just outside of the three- mile limit; 1 lira, the Piazza San Marco of Venice, with the words "Fiume proclaimed her annexation to .Italy on October 30th, 1918." I have laid stress upon the various values because they prove, incidentally, that Fiume uses the Italian currency now, 'W^i^'.i^y • while during the d'Annunzian period .WN- V she used the Austrian crown sur­ charged Cittd cli Fiume, and before that the unstamped Austrian crown. THE BLOODY CHRISTMAS OF 1920 IN FIUME BRIDGES BLOWN UP BY THE D'ANNUNZIANS She has consistently refused to use TO STOP THE ITALIAN REGULARS Jugoslav currency, which in fact is now liable to confiscation there. but leaving her still chained to the refusing to submit to the Allies' will. How does Fiume live? It is a mys­ rock. And the first of the Allies to test tery to me. An explanation may be And how she does love her mother Flume's obstinacy had been France, found in the fact that her ante-bellum Italy also! One of the first things you who had sent her little yellow An- population of forty thousand souls (of notice when you stroll through the namites to establish a naval base, but whom about thirty thousand were town is that most peculiar monument had had fifty of them slaughtered in Italians and the rest Croats and Hun­ in the imposing and central Piazza one day. Blind to realities, the Allies, garians) included no less than fifty Dante, consisting of a pedestal sup­ instead of using some of their Italian millionaires. Also, the Italians have porting the anchor and chain of the units there, thought that they might fed the children of Fiume for years, Emanuele Filiberto, the first Italian keep order in the town with British and the words emigrato Fiumano are man-of-war to reach Fiume after her "bobbies;" and on being reminded that an "open sesame" for any one who will formal act of annexation to Italy on English-speaking guards could not move to Italy and look for a job. But October 30, 1918, or five days before well police an Italian-speaking city, most of the people are still here, the Armistice—^a date which indicates they volunteered that, while British soured, suspicious, haggard, defiant, the anarchy then prevailing in the policemen from England might not do like tigers pacing their little cage six Hapsburg Empire. And the flags it, British policemen from Malta could. miles by three. "Thou shalt not which flew at half-mast from almost Now Malta has ever been a thorn in pass!" everybody seems to say to every house in Fiume (as everywhere the side of nationalistic Italy; and the them. If they stroll toward the Eneo, in Italy) while the remains of Presi­ decision to import those dis-Italianized they stare just across the ditch at dent Harding were brought across the Maltese to keep order in an ultra- some such sign as Hotel Balkan or continent were mainly Italian flags, Italian city made the Fiumani foam at Cafe Panslavia, or they hear the bi­ with only a sprinkling of the (hor­ the mouth. It was then that Colonel lingual Croat children sing to them rible) pink, yellow, and blue flags of d'Annunzio marched in at the head of songs like this: the Free State of Fiume, and—one the pick of the Italian army, and the hardly needs to add—not one Jugoslav d'Annunzian Free State began its E la Eegina Elena—Suonava il piano­ flag. Had one of those been shown, I spectacular meteoric career. forte— suspect that the National Federation The words "d'Annunzian Free Nel mentre i suoi soldati—Andavano of Italian Arditi (Black Flames), State" are all essential to specify that alia morte.' which has found an asylum in Fiume particular stage of recent Fiume his­ If he goes to the railway station, he •after being advised to quench its ar­ tory, since this place has changed will be met at the gate by Italian cara- dor in Italy proper, would have used names no less than five times in five binieri asking for his passport. He is against the building the whole supply years. It began its independent ca­ totally at the mercy of his neighbors; of dynamite left by d'Annunzio in the reer as "Free City of Fiume," a title his electric light and his water supply Free State at the time of his exodus. it enjoyed by courtesy even under are in Slav territory, his railway is in the Hapsburgs. Under d'Annunzio Italian hands. He is a veritable pris­ Of French, British, or American the city had officially become "Fiume oner, with a prisoner's typical psychol­ flags I saw none there. Poor Fiume, d'ltalia," while the state, owing to the ogy. For one thing, the world has she would be brought face to face annexation of the near-by islands of ordered Fiume to cease crying aloud, with too many sad memories if she Arbe and Veglia, was styled "Free but it has been unable to eradicate saw them. Few Americans realize State of the Carnaro," from the name from her heart the religion of memo­ that she had hoisted the Stars and given by Dante to the Bay of Quar- ries; and the Cittd Martire, woman­ Stripes on the day of her liberation, nero, which the poet with almost like, still loves her fiery lover d'An- and that when she plighted her troth prophetic powers hails as the bound­ nunzio quite as much for the suffering to Italy she called on the United ary of a yet unborn Italy. When the he caused her as for the spectacular States, paladin of self-determination, Comandante departed, the Italian way in which that modern Perseus to protect her in her pledge. One year regulars left to preserve order re­ came to the rescue of his Andromeda, later her irregular Government was named it "Italian Regency of the succeeding in ovei-eoming the dragon, nominally at war against America, whence Mr, Wilson thundered major Carnaro." Then the Italo-Jugosiav 1 "And Queen Elena used to play the piano excommunication against Fiume for Treaty of Rapallo compelled Fiume to while her soldiers marched to their death."

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 1923 THE OUTLOOK 405 elect her own officials and let the Mussolini's ultimatum to Greece and political smoke screens have been. Italians depart, and the term "Free considered this a further proof of thrown, I proceeded next to measure. State • of Fiume" was chosen for the dangerous impatience; second, because the comparative widths of the t\vo new republic, which elected as its head if Fiume could have been made to wait branches of the Eneo, to see which one c niost diplomatic but unreliable sep- six months longer the railway uniting might more justly be considered the,: c.r:.tist named Riccardo Zanella. I Bosnia with Spalato in Jugoslav Dal- river, and therefore form the bound­ have related elsewhere' the exploits of matia would have been completed, thus ary. I measured as carefully as I this gentleman, and shall therefore bringing Serbia' nearer to the sea and could, but to no avail. Nature con^ mention here only the reward he simplifying the Fiume problem, which, spiring with man in making trouble reaped for the same, namely, his ex­ as everybody sees now that Wilson for Fiume, I cannot honestly say that pulsion from the state. It is not for and d'Annunzio are out of the way, is either branch is sufficiently wider and me to discuss the wisdom of that act; merely a conflict of nationality versus deeper than the other to constitute the city of Fiume is under the patron­ outlets to the sea. But could Fiume the "river boundary" called for by the age of St. Vitus, and cannot therefore be made to wait? Probably not; and Treaty of Rapallo. be expected to number stability among the contention of the Fiumani de­ Lacking the authority of that in­ her chief virtues. But the fact re­ serves sympathy: "We have suffered strument, each of the contestants mains that having to submit all state enough; we want to know where we brings up other "evidence." Private papers to an expelled President resid­ stand. Italy and Jugoslavia may have letters of diplomats (one of which, ing in what for a Fiumano is "enemy every interest in postponing the issue; written by Count Sforza and rather territory," at Porto Re, in Jugoslavia, we can't. No more charity and no damning to Fiume, is being flourished after they have been discussed by the more intrigue; we want our port, now, by the Slavs as their favorite scalping city Council headed by a powerless and all of it." knife), ancient books on geography, chairman, does not make for an ideal "All of it!" There is the crux of and maps (these plainly showing that form of government; especially when the matter. Disagreement on its ex­ the Fiumara is recent and man-made, the President refuses to sign anything tent explains the dissension of the while the Recina is old and God- dealing with more consequential items Jugoslav Commissioner, and the con­ made) , are being used to do the than paving stones and street lamps. tinued stoppage of all exports from dirtiest work imaginable. They mean Why did Fiume not grow tired of it Jugoslavia by way of Fiume and their little to me. But what appeared clear long ago, and find a remedy for it? rerouting via other ports. (Here I as I surveyed the situation from the What was she waiting for? ask myself candidly: How can the thin Diga Cagni (separating Basins She was waiting for something— Slavs continue to claim that they can­ A and B), which enables vessels to something so essential to her that not live without the port of Fiume, unload from either side of its frail even her political rehabilitation must when for the last five years they have twenty yards of width, was that Basin be held in abeyance: the report of the disproved this by boycotting Fiume B cannot be divided between two coun­ Trinational Commission on the Port and trading through other Jugoslav tries; and surely poor Fiume cannot of Fiume (with three commissioners ports?) But let us study on the map be made to give up the half of it which —one Fiuman, one Jugoslav, and one the technical side of the contest. is not built on the delta. Remember Italian), created by the Italo-Jugoslav Rapallo decreed that the Fiume port that Basin B is only 200 yards wide, Treaty of Rapallo November 12, be Fiuman; the Susak port, Jugoslav. and if divided evenly it would leave 1920), the last international instru­ But nature blundered, like everybody the longer boats partly in one country ment dealing with Fiume. The port else here. For, while Fiume is sepa­ and partly in another. Such a situation will be as good as dead until these rated from its Croat suburb of Susak is so absurd that it could not be gentlemen have finished, and Fiume by the river Eneo, which forms a imagined elsewhere. Here of course will be as good as dead until her port, workable boundary between the Free nothing strikes you as unreal if you only resource of a state six miles by State and Jugoslavia, the Eneo un­ were here also in d'Annunzian days. three, is alive again. This Commis- fortunately forms a delta before en­ Did I not see in this very port, three sione Paritetica has worked somewhat tering the Adriatic; and although years ago. Basin A occupied by Fiu­ slowly on the very complicated port passenger steamers cast anchor main­ man and Basin B by Italian men-of- problem, but is understood to have ly west of the delta, most of the war, supposedly sent after their out­ reached a solution several months ago freight facilities are situated on the law brothers? Let me read from my —a solution, that is, on which two of delta, the freighters using either side note-book my record of that unforget- the members, the Fiuman and the of Porto Baross, which is built half able visit: "To the right of the pier Italian, were willing to agree after on the delta and half on Fiume are the Italian and to the left the mutual compromises, but in which the proper! Now the Treaty of Rapallo Fiuman battleships—twenty yards Jugoslav member refused to accede. makes no mention of the delta, the away. Both fly the same flags, the And, since the Commission was the status of which is therefore still offi­ tricolor of Italy. But while the sailors child of the Rapallo Treaty, and Mus­ cially undefined. D'Annunzians, Ar- of the Italian dreadnought Dante solini, by withdrawing the Italian diti, Fascisti of the days before Fas- Alighieri receive their pay from the troops from the islands south of cismo became an annex of Italian con­ Italian paymaster, and their role is Fiume (which even his less nationalis­ servatism, had in turn taken posses­ universally known to be that of refus­ tic predecessors had managed to sion, creating a disturbing precedent. ing to obey orders in case the Italian keep), had drunk to the last drop the And now? I felt quite a thrill as I naval authorities should ask the Dante bitter Adriatic chalice presented to walked nonchalantly across a bridge, to sail away (let no one even mention Italy at Rapallo, and had thus removed indifferently guarded, over the right a more absurd possibility!), those on the last pretext for Slav tergiversa­ branch of the Eneo to the disputed board the Bertani, twenty yards away, tions, he wrote to the head of the territory. The spooky silence was wear next to the war ribbon the Fiume Cotnmissione demanding a majority broken by the whispers of two lovers medal, and receive their pay from the report by September 15. This so- and by a nostalgic Neapolitan song. Fiume paymaster. And who pays the called "Mussolini ultimatum" has ap­ The delta was officially empty, but un­ Fiume paymaster? That is another peared to many as a diplomatic faux officially occupied by a few Italian story." pas; first, because the public opinion customs guards intrusted with the job of England and of her journalistic of preventing smuggling from the sea But that was 1920, and in a world satellite, America, had been stirred by and raids from the shore. of realities such tragic rehearsals of cpira houffe must not reappear, such risky proximities must be avoided. ^ See "North American Review" for November, Being determined to study in situ 1D22. the problem over which such thick Let any one who is really at odds with

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED 406 TIIE OUTLOOK 7 November Fiume move away at least as far as tality of the ultimatum" and wailed ambiguity, and of documents worded the little port of Susak; not very deep that Italy had occupied Corfu in order so as to create misunderstandings, and perhaps, but good enough for the to bottle up the Adriatic and browbeat of: clever evasions of two-edged laws, Croats, since only eight per cent of the Jugoslavia into accepting the Fiume are at an end. Again and again I have Fiume trade was of Croatian origin. settlement: and Mussolini thought Visited the Cathedral Church of San It was to eliminate such incongruities wiser not to insist. Then Depoli re­ Vito, and have always found it empty. that the Commissione Paritetica was signed, with a noble, tragic letter in "These people do not believe," I re~ supposed to have concluded that the which he informed Italy that his city- marked to a hard-faced Fiumana. economic unity of the whole port of state was dying and might be counted "Why should we?" was the bitter an­ Fiume (A and B basins) be left un­ upon to do something reckless. Not swer. Rightly' or wrongly, under- broken in the hands of the Free State, bluff, either. It was an open secret in d'Annunzio these people forged for of which they constitute the only valu­ Florence that Captain Coselschi, d'An- themselves heroic wings for the flight able asset; that the State, then able to nunzio's former secretary at Fiume, toward the realm of the ideal, but the stagger along, be more and more de­ was enrolling volunteers to retake the world clipped them and bade Fiume to prived of that tutelage by Italy which city in the name of Italy. With char­ be a tiny pawn in a diplomatic check­ was hitherto made unavoidable by the acteristic disregard of legality, Mus­ erboard. That almost killed their helplessness of that Italian com­ solini had Coselschi's mail opened and souls. Let us all make amend to munity; that in return Jugoslavia be his plans frustrated; and with equally Fiume, and not only with words, but made to open the frontier to her ex­ characteristic speed he appointed Gen­ by putting into her war-worn hands ports from the interior. eral Giardino to take the place of the tools of peace, and remembering When I was at Fiume last August, Depoli and head the Fiume City Coun­ that our act will be useless unless it seemed as if the end of the port cil. Contemporaneously, Jugoslavia calmer counsels prevail in the hearts controversy had come. With a definite and Italy deposited with the League of men far from Fiume, throughout status assured Fiume, clean if small of Nations at Geneva the texts of the this planet in turmoil; for the "prob­ revenues would come in, an honest Rapallo Treaty, which guarantees in lem of Fiume" is simply a war-^time budget could be made, and the political perpetuity the independence of Fiume; problem, since in peace time no one anomaly would cease. Signor Depoli, thus making it automatically impossi­ would prevent Jugoslavia from using the Vice-President, was willing to run ble to interpret the presence: of Gen­ Fiume as freely as if it were her the city in lieu of Signor Zanella only eral Giardino there as a step toward own, just as Switzerland uses Genoa, a few weeks longer. Mussolini prom­ Italian annexation. never dreaming to annex that Italian city. Let the world stop its mental ised relief for September 15. But the The Eubicon has been crossed, then; date came and brought no relief, since saber-rattling, and Fiume will have and I, for one, am glad. Glad that peace. the Slavs protested against the "bru- the days of plots and sophistry and A MOONSHINER ON PROHIBITION BY FRANCIS PRIDEMORE

It is a daring plan to promote the enforcement of prohibition in the mountains that this ex-moonshiner proposes. Wontani semper liberi, and this plan gives a mountaineer's view of the way the Government should deal with the free men of the mountains NLY four years have passed was comparatively easy money, al­ generally of fairly good quality—^while since I gave up moonshining. though attended with considerable the bootlegger peddles it out. The O My still is even yet used by the risk. At that stage in my career, how­ ordinary moonshiner sells his liquor men who worked with me, and I im­ ever, I counted the danger part of the principally to his neighbors and agine I could go straight to the cave compensation. Though $15 a quart friends. With him distilling is merely where they carry on their operations. was top price in 1918, yet to-day I a side-line, not a profession. The I might still be in the business but for could get considerably more. I have bootlegger drifts arouna, picking up a the war. Owing to various injuries, I been urged over and over again by all quart here and a quart there, diluting was rejected in 1917 and the war was sorts and conditions of men, either to the good stuff and getting more for a really over before I finally did get in. make the whisky for them or to teach pint than the moonshiner does for a While I was in the Army I married, them how to make it, but so far, in quart. Or perhaps he ships poor and my wife permanently separated spite of ill health, strikes, and babies, liquor in from Canada or somewhere me from my old life. Certainly if she I have been able to get along without else and disposes of it as genuine had been willing to have me continue recourse to my old business. moonshine. The moonshiner looks in my old trade I could have supported I suppose that most people will be down on the bootlegger and does not her much more adequately than I have surprised to learn that personally I ap­ like the idea of surrendering the field hitherto been able to do, for prohibi­ prove of prohibition, and always did to him. If the bootleggers, men who tion would have enabled me to make a believe in it even when I was most sell wood alcohol as bottled in bond moderate fortune. Probably I shall constantly violating the principle. and white as pure corn whisky, could never make as much money in any Nearly all the moonshiners I know— be abolished along with the revenue other way as I did in the last of my and I know a great many—do believe officers and prohibition agents, most moonshining days. When I joined the in it. I will go even further and say moonshining would automatically Army, I was getting from twelve to that there is hardly a moonshiner who come to an end. This may sound like fifteen dollars a quart for corn would not be perfectly willing to shut a very rash statement, but since I whisky. This brought my income up down his still forever if it were not come of a moonshining family and was to $300 or more a month, exclusive of for the bootleggers and the old rev­ brought up among them, I know what I made in the coal mines, for, to enue officers, who are now mostly pro­ whereof I speak. avoid attracting the attention of the hibition agents. Many people, I find, Most people regard the moonshiner revenue men, I and all my helpers compare moonshiners and bootleggers. as a man defying all law. Instead he worked in the coal mines. This $300 The moonshiner makes the liquor— is a conscientious objector to one cer-

PRODUCED BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED