Fatherland.” Against him the Southern Slavs in Rome issued a protest, which was published in the Corriere della Sera. It was signed by “The Croatian Committee,” this collective name being used in order to preclude the reprisals which the authorities in Vienna and Budapest would have taken against the families of individual signatories. In those days the Southern Slavs also talked of an “Adriatic Legion” to act under the guidance of a “Southern Slav Committee.” Indeed, in January 1915 a “Southern Slav Committee “issued a number of declarations. Thus, in organization at least, the Southern Slavs were ahead of us; and I used this circumstance to urge our people in Prague to send some of our journalists and members of Parliament to join me abroad.
Personal Relationships.
Neither in Rome nor afterwards did I waste time on people who merely held official positions. Though at first our people at home took it amiss if I failed to visit this or that Minister or Member of Parliament, I knew the value of the men who were politically active in various countries and always sought to ascertain on the spot their real influence. In Rome I saw the Polish Professor Loret, and also the Germanophil Danish writer, Rasmussen, but I had little contact with the Russian Embassy except through some of its officials and the military attaché, for the Russian Ambassador had no influence either in Rome or in his own country. M. de Giers, the Montenegrin, was more interesting. M. Svatkovsky, with whom I had got into touch while still at Prague, I have already mentioned. Though I had known him for years I had not worked much with him as I did not wish to damage his official position as the representative of the Russian Official Telegraph Agency for Austria-Hungary and the Balkans. When I returned from Germany in the autumn of 1914, he had sent me a trustworthy messenger through whom I let him know that I should be in Rome towards the middle of December; and he was waiting for me there when I arrived. As his name shows, his family was originally Czech. He was a descendent of the Svatkovskys of Dobrohosht who took part in the Bohemian insurrection of 1618. After the confiscation of their estates, his ancestors emigrated to Saxony and thence to Russia. Hence his sincere interest in our affairs. The Russians had been defeated in East Prussia, and there were rumours of treason in the army and in the Russian administration. Svatkovsky knew many
