With the Serbs in Macedonia

THE DELIVERANCE 271
Slav. Without the least desire to stir the mud,
one cannot forget a certain bombardment by
the Austrians when the ItaHans did nothing,
or the way the Serbian Army at the end of
that heroic Retreat was compelled to
on again. What has the patriot-poet,
march
D'An-
nunzio, to say to these things ? And now— to
take Fiume, the outlet Serbia has always craved,
the port rightly hers,
is to assume the mantle
of discredited Austria, to continue the policy
of repression that for generations has made
the Balkans the menace of European peace.
It was simply asking for trouble. Those who
knew the Serbs shuddered. But— nothing happened.
Not because they were war- weary, but
because they are Great, and Allies. Grimly
they went on with their reconstruction, and
submitted to the arbitration of the Peace Con-
ference a question which a less fine nation
would have submitted to the sword.
From start to finish—
always the same. Why
hide the truth ? Belgium has always been
written up in the Press. Belgium has all our
sympathies. Belgium was fine— at first. But
Serbia has been fine all through. She has suffered
more and done more. She was never able to
make the occupying Hun pay, as the Belgians
were. Her women and children have been
treated far worse. The story of her civilian and