dynasty, such a State to include Croatia, Dalmatia, Istria and the Triestine littoral. The question of Bosnia and of the Slovene country was left open. I was in favour of the greatest possible degree of Southern Slav unity, both territorial and political. Italy, I must repeat, was then neutral. Trieste, I thought, might be an independent free port, like Hamburg. At the same time, no detailed plan could be made; but I gave Dr. Lorkovitch my views so that he might inform my Southern Slav friends, whom I expected to meet abroad and with whom I wished closely to cooperate. I met Dr. Lorkovitch again in Vienna before going to Italy; he gave me a map and a statistical table of the Croat settlements in the projected corridor. As to the Slovenes I conferred with Dr. Kramer who, as I expected, told me that the progressive Slovenes were in favour of union between all three branches of the Southern Slav race-Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.
In the Lion’s Den.
Before starting I wanted to have another good look at Vienna and Austria; and I went right into the lion’s den.
At Prague the story ran that Count Thun, the Lord-Lieutenant or Viceroy of Bohemia, had already received from Vienna a list of the people whom he was to arrest, and that my name was on it. Therefore I had gone to him after returning from my first journey to Holland, ostensibly because my review, the “Naše Doba,” had been confiscated and because official pressure was being put on my paper, the “Čas.” Thun was a decent fellow with whom one could talk pretty frankly; but, this time, he appeared more reserved than usual. Without shaking hands, he took me to a room alongside of his reception-room, where, it seemed to me, somebody behind a curtain was taking down what I said. I had one or two things to tell him—that, for instance, during the recent Balkan wars of 1912–13 the Austrian Government had allowed us to make collections for the Serbians and Bulgarians, and that our Czech soldiers could not be expected to forget this so soon. As to our pro-Russian feelings, we were certainly Russophil, which did not necessarily mean that we were quite enamoured of the Tsar and his system of Government. In any case, people in Vienna ought to treat our soldiers with a little political tact. I said further that our wounded men who had been sent back from the Russian front complained of the inadequacy of the Army Medical Service (to which, indeed,
