The Birth Of Yugoslavia Volume Ii Part 6

Italy was also to receive portions of the following Justiciary Districts:

Per cent. Yugoslavs. Per cent. Italians.

1. Trogir (Trau) with 9912 with 032 2. Sinj " 9929 " 024 3. Imotski " 9984 " 011 4. Vrlika " 9995 " 004

In the early part of 1919 a plebiscite was organized by a delegation which the representatives of the occupied communes elected at Split on January 11. According to the census of 1900 the occupied territory contained 35 communes, divided into 398 localities, with 297,181 inhabitants. In 35 localities, with 14,659 inhabitants, the census was prevented by the Italians, who also confiscated the results of the plebiscite in the commune of Obrovac.[38] The delegates were therefore successful in canva.s.sing 9507 per cent. of all the inhabitants. In 34 communes the majority for union with Yugoslavia was over 90 per cent., while in 24 it exceeded even 99 per cent. At Zadar (the town) out of 14,056 inhabitants 6623 (= 47 per cent.) voted for Yugoslavia, while in the suburbs, with a larger population, the majority was 8957 per cent.

In the islands the majorities ranged from 96 per cent. to 100 per cent.

And if any doubts were entertained as to these figures, the delegates were authorized to propose another plebiscite under the control of a disinterested Allied Power.

YET THEY ARE INCREDIBLY NONCHALANT

Dalmatia, as is shown by the number of emigrants, is not a wealthy province; and one would have supposed that if the Italians thought it necessary to occupy a country whose inhabitants were so unmistakably opposed to them, it would have been--to put it at the lowest--politic to hamper no one in the getting of his livelihood. Austria had established fourteen military fishing centres (besides others in Rieka, Istria, etc.), and these the Croats joined most willingly, as a means of avoiding service in a hated army. After the war, when their nets were worn out, Italy supplied her Chioggia fisherfolk with new ones. Owing to the conditions of the Triple Alliance, the Italians enjoyed the right to "high-sea" fishing, that is to say, the fishing up to three miles from the Dalmatian coast; but now the Italian boats occupied all the rich fishing grounds among the northern islands. These dispossessed natives were originally more preoccupied with fish than with Italians. Is it strange that they refused to see that Italy was, in the words of Admiral Millo, the friend and liberator?... A German firm, the Steinbeiss Company, had built in Bosnia a very narrow-gauge line for the exploitation of its forests; during the War this line was continued to Prijedor, and with great difficulty it had served for the transport of food-stuff and pa.s.sengers from Croatia: on the Croatian lines up to Sissak normal gauge; from there to Prijedor narrow gauge; from there to Knin very narrow gauge, and from there to Split or ibenik narrow gauge. Thus with the loading and unloading between 30 per cent. and 50 per cent. of the goods were lost; but when Italy sat down at Rieka the inhabitants of Dalmatia looked to this line. At Prijedor hundreds of waggons of wheat and corn were waiting to be forwarded, and with Italy blocking the road at Knin they simply perished.

ONE OF THEIR VICTIMS

The Italian administration of Dalmatia--economically, politically, scholastically, ecclesiastically and financially (as we will show)--was thoroughly mistaken. Wherever one goes one is overwhelmed with evidence; it is impossible to print more than a t.i.the of it. But the mention of Knin recalls the case of Dr. Bogic, who was deported to Sardinia for political reasons. On January 1 he was arrested, together with a Franciscan monk, a schoolmaster and others, transported to ibenik and put into a cell devoid of bed, light or a window. Thence, with nothing to eat, although the weather was wintry, he was taken on to the S.S. _Almissa_, bound for Ancona. Near ibenik the boat collided with the isle of Zlarin; he and the other prisoners attempted to get out of their cabin, but carabinieri kept them there by flourishing revolvers in their faces. At Ancona, Spoleto, Perugia, Florence and Leghorn the doctor was always lodged in prisons, had his finger-prints taken, had to stand up to salute the warders, had to look on while his things were stolen--at Ancona, for instance, they despoiled him of eighty cigars.

His wrists were always bound; he was attached not only to his fellow-travellers but to Italians who were under life-sentences. The carabinieri cut up their bread, put it on their knees and then, without unbinding the ropes, left them to eat it as best they could. The journey was very slow; thus from Perugia to Florence--being all the time attached to one another--it took sixteen hours. Dr. Conti, the prison doctor at Florence, said that Dr. Bogic was ill, but as he declined to give him a certificate the journey was resumed. From Florence to Leghorn he was bound so tightly that his wrists were very much swollen.

From Leghorn in the S.S. _Derna_ he was shipped to Sardinia, where he had experience of several prisons, including that of Terranuova-Pausania, where water flows down the walls and vermin are everywhere. He received 2.75 lire a day with which to buy his food, and although he is a doctor they refused to let him read any medical books. When I asked him of what he had been guilty, he began by recounting his war work. Over 6000 Italian prisoners were at Knin, and he was there as military doctor for more than two years. These Italians were employed on the railway line and--as is clear from the letters they wrote to him after their release--letters some of which I read--they had very friendly recollections of the doctor. Once in the summer of 1918 a group of Italians arrived who had been, in the doctor's words, "b.e.s.t.i.a.lly maltreated at Zala-Egerseg by the Magyars." Dozens died on the way to Knin, others while they were being got out of the station, others on the way to the hospital. They were nothing but skeletons, dressed almost exclusively in paper clothes. General Wucherer happened to be at Knin and to him the doctor reported that the Italians had been treated in an absolutely criminal fashion. Wucherer, who was a decent fellow, ordered the doctor to dictate the whole affair and said that if nothing else could be done he would go direct to His Majesty. Then standing up he struck the table, in the presence of his staff, of Dr. Grgin of Split and of the railway commandant Captain Bergmann, and "Wir sind doch die grossten Schuften!" he exclaimed ("After all, it is we who are the biggest scoundrels!").... When the Yugoslavs overthrew the Austrian Government at Knin, the doctor, a kindly-looking, little, bald man, made a speech to the prisoners from the balcony of the town hall. He armed two of the Italians and ten French prisoners, whom he told off to guard the magazine. The two Italians (Cirillo Tomba and Mario Favelli) vanished after a couple of days; the French remained for a week, and when a French destroyer arrived at Split they were taken there, not as prisoners but as soldiers, bearing arms. Dr. Bogic was a member of the National Committee at Knin, and as such he wrote to a colleague at Drni to ask him whether the Italian troops were coming up from ibenik. This letter was his undoing. The reason he wrote it was because the population at Knin was extremely agitated by the prospective occupation and begged him to ascertain the latest news. He should have remembered, no doubt, that the Italians regarded this as enemy country and that to make inquiries with regard to the movement of troops was a crime. An officer came and asked him, in the General's name, if he would kindly take part in a conference; on reaching the place which was indicated he found himself surrounded by carabinieri. Their captain, a certain Albano, said that he and two or three others must go to ibenik to undergo a short interrogatory, and that as he would return in two days at the latest it was unnecessary for him to take any money, clothes or linen. As a matter of fact the doctor had, on the previous day, been warned from Split that the Italians meant to intern him; but he laughed--he had done so much for them and he felt so innocent that it seemed absurd to run away. He could have gone, because he had a written permit issued to him on January 10 by the 144th Italian infantry regiment at Knin, which stated that he and his wife might go, whenever they wished, to Split.

SEVEN HUNDRED OTHERS

During the winter and spring over seven hundred persons, chiefly belonging to the clerical, the legal and the medical professions, had been deported from Dalmatia. The leader of the Italian party at Zadar told me that two of them had written him from Nocera Umbra, saying that this, their place of interment, was a health resort and that they were getting fat. He scouted the idea that they were under any sort of compulsion when they wrote or that they were pulling his leg. One must anyhow congratulate them in not being taken to Sardinia, as were the vast majority. Those who managed to return from that island--among them Dr. Macchiedo of Zadar, through the intervention of Bissolati, on account of Mrs. Macchiedo being at death's door--said that they found in Sardinia what they had expected of a penal establishment. Many priests were deported, on account of crimes which varied in enormity. A very frequent cause was that they refused to preach in Italian to a congregation which only understood Serbo-Croat. One must say that the Italians exhibited no religious partiality, for they treated the Roman Catholic Church just the same as the Orthodox. Some of the persecutions were so fatuous that one could only suppose they must be due to a misunderstanding. To mention only one which came under my observation at Skradin, not far from ibenik, where the Orthodox priest in his sumptuous vestments had led his congregation out of the old town in order to perform an annual ceremony in connection with the fertility of the fields. In what way was the Italian cause a.s.sisted when carabinieri broke up that procession and refused even to allow the people to walk back on the road, so that all of them, including the priest and the other church officials with the sacred emblems, were forced to go back to Skradin as best they could by wading through the marshes?

A GLIMPSE OF THE OFFICIAL ROBBERIES

An allusion has been made to the Italian financial methods. More than one Italian officer, including Admiral Millo, spoke to me about the Austrian currency, which seemed to them one of the gravest problems. In Yugoslavia these notes were only legal tender if they had the Government stamp, and the Italians resolved that in the territories which they occupied the notes must have no stamp upon them. So far, so good. But when some poor peasant came across the line of demarcation from Croatia or else landed somewhere in a boat the Italians were not making good propaganda for themselves when they seized the notes, tore them up and refused to give their victim a receipt. One poor fellow whom I know of came with his mother along that wonderful road which the Austrians built over the mountains and down to Obrovac. He had some serious affection of the eyes and was compelled to go to Zadar to consult an oculist. He took with him practically all his fortune, as he and his mother did not know what otherwise to do with it. They had never yet made use of a bank.

Well, the Italians tore up the notes and told him testily to go about his business. The same thing happened to the following persons:

Crowns.

1. March 22, 1919. Bogdan Babovic, son of Radovan, of Montenegro, was robbed of 1,348 2. " 22, " Peter Lukic, son of Stephen of Spic, " " 1,800 3. " 30, " Marijan evelj, of Tucepa, " " 3,530 4. " 31, " Frano Frankic and Ivanica Petricevic, " " 12,000 5. April 8, " Stephen Vukuic, son of Peter, of Katuna, " " 4,758 6. " 8, " Nikola Cike, son of Mate, of eevice, " " 3,071 7. " 8, " Martinis Jozo, son of the late Nikola, of Komia, " " 6,332 8. " 8, " Jure Rubic, son of the late Peter, of Zadvarje " " 6,030 9. " 8, " Mato karicic, son of Stephen, of Podgrazza, " " 500 10. April 8, 1919. Mihovil arac, son of the late Crowns.

Marko, of Split, was robbed of 300 11. " 11, " Ilika Kutljaca, son of the late Peter, of Cista, " " 600 12. " 13, " Marko Caljkuic, son of the late Ante, of estanova, " " 11,000 13. " 14, " Damjan Udovicic, son of Jakov, of Imotski, " " 3,200 14. " 16, " Antun Radic, son of Peter, of Trogir, " " 62,000 15. " 16, " Madalena Kugmic, widow of Nikola, of Split, " " 1,000 16. " 17, " Pero Juric, son of Abram, of Ostrozac, " " 2,285 17. " 19, " Jakov Jurkovic, son of Miko " "} 18. " 19, " Mate Rajic, son of Ilija, " "} 8,140 19. " 19, " Jerko Rejic, son of Luke, " "} 20. " 19, " Josip Kolumbur, son of Marko, of Livno, " " 25,000 21. " 25, " Zorka Aljinovic, of Split, " " 600 22. " 28, " Ana iak, of Split, " " 1,900 23. " 29, " Nikolina Rastor, of Split, " " 1,800 24. " 30, " Antica Milic, of Split, " " 5,000 25. " 24, " Tomislav Novak, son of Mate, of Hvar, " " 3,000 26. " 24, " Gjuran Arif, of Livno, " " 2,200 -------- Total 136,794 --------

These were the complaints over a period of a month, which were received by the Provincial (Yugoslav) Government at Split. One has to take their word for it that the list is not fict.i.tious. I did not investigate any of the cases; the Italian officers to whom I showed the list said that they were persuaded I would find that in every case the person culpable was an officious, ignorant N.C.O. The list is, of course, no more than a fragment. At Starigrad, on the island of Hvar, I was told that from the people, who were searched both on landing and on leaving, 40,000 crowns had been confiscated, and at first they had been told that the money should be stamped. A merchant whom I happened to meet during the few hours I was at Metkovic told me that he had gone to the island of Korcula to his brother and, on landing, had been relieved of 34,000 crowns.

AND HARSHNESS AND BRIBERY

In Asia Minor we have another disastrous example of the Allied policy of allowing a disputed zone to be occupied _ad interim_ solely by the troops of one interested country. The chronic state of war which followed the landing of the Greeks at Smyrna, the atrocities, the charges and the counter-charges, were investigated by an Inter-Allied Commission of Inquiry; and their report, which was issued early in 1920 and was signed by an American Admiral and French, Italian and British Generals, laid the responsibility at the door of the Greek Higher Command. The Commission considered that an inter-Allied occupation was necessary, because the Greeks, instead of maintaining order, had given their position all the characteristics of a permanent occupation, the Turkish authorities being powerless. They also considered that order should be maintained by inter-Allied troops other than Greek.... No such Commission visited Dalmatia, chiefly because the Yugoslavs, in spite of endless provocations, displayed greater self-control than the Turks. But an Inter-Allied Inquiry would have reported that the Italian regime had not the marks of a permanent occupation simply because such methods could never be permanent: everywhere in the occupied territory it was forbidden, under severe penalties, to have any Serbo-Croat newspaper. On one island I found about fifteen gentlemen gathered round a table in a sort of dungeon, reading the newspapers which had been smuggled into their possession. This they had been doing for more than six months.

Every letter was censored, all telegraphic and telephonic communication between the occupied territory and the outside world was prohibited. All flags, of course, except that of Italy, were vetoed. Admiral Millo told us that this prohibition did not extend to the flags of France, Great Britain and the United States; considering that it is on record when and where the flags of these nations were, if flown by civilians, ordered to be taken down at Rieka, despite the presence of Allied contingents, it seems scarcely worth saying that, as we were often told, the Admiral's permission, which was in accordance with the Armistice, was disregarded by his subordinates. Another thing that was very rigorously forbidden, especially on the islands, was for any Yugoslav to go down to the harbour, if a boat came in, and carry on a conversation with somebody on board. It would be tedious to enter into all the questionable and tyrannical Italian methods, such as the requisitioning of Yugoslav clubs, schools, etc., sometimes leaving them empty because they found they did not want them, the requisitioning of private houses, with no consideration for their owners, the wholesale cutting-down of forests, the closing of law-courts, the demand that other courts should p.r.o.nounce no judgment before first submitting it to them. But, above all, what the Yugoslav Government at Split complained of were the methods they employed in the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous distribution of food, clothing and money:

I

GOVERNMENT OF DALMATIA AND OF THE DALMATIAN ISLANDS AND OF THE CURZOLA ISLANDS

SUBJECT: _Question of Food Supplies for the Civil Population._

No. 43. _March_ 18, 1919.

To all subject authorities:

I have heard that several commanding officers who have to distribute food to the civilian population have, by virtue of an authorization that they may save part of the entered amounts for the purpose of using that sum for propaganda, saved a conspicuous quant.i.ty without having the possibility of using it later. As it has been ascertained that the only effective means of propaganda is the distribution of food supplies ...

amounts which are useless [for other purposes] and absolutely necessary for purposes of propaganda.

THE VICE-ADMIRAL THE GOVERNOR, E. MILLO.

II

ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF DALMATIA AND OF THE DALMATIAN ISLANDS AND OF THE CURZOLA ISLANDS

STAFF. SECTION OF PROPAGANDA, No. Prot. "P." SEBENICO, _April_ 18, 1919.

The section of propaganda of the Government of Dalmatia, whose object is the rapid diffusion of Italianity in this n.o.ble region which gives at last to Italy the complete dominion over the most bitter Adriatic, has set before itself a vast programme of truly Italian action ... it is therefore necessary to give these latter certain advantages ... it has been suggested that Italian schools be favoured ... that offices be opened for the gratuitous or semi-gratuitous distribution of food, that presents be given to the indigent population, that fetes and spectacles be organized.

[Signature illegible.]

These two doc.u.ments give some indication of the plan of campaign. One might mention, by the bye, that during this period there was a great shortage of food-stuffs in Italy; large quant.i.ties were being sent from the United States. The Yugoslav Government at Split complained of the disastrous social and moral results of these proceedings. It gave rise to many abuses and to a clandestine trade. On the young it had, for example, at Split a most unhealthy influence; all they had to do was to go on board the _Puglia_, the Italian flagship, whether their parents allowed them or not, and there they were given both provisions and cash.

As elsewhere in the world there are at Split a number of idlers and scamps, who seized this opportunity; another cla.s.s of person, who had erstwhile been regarded as Austrian spies, did not hesitate a moment to proclaim that they were the most ardent Italian patriots. All these people were ready enough to give their signatures to anything in return for the Italian bounty, and to endeavour to persuade others to do so; in that way the Italians collected 6000 signatures, whereas the Italianists of Split were, at the outside, 1800; at Trogir, where the Italianists numbered 80 to 100, they collected more than 1000 signatures.

THE ITALIANS IN DALMATIA BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR

To grasp the conditions at Split we must go back to the years just before the War. From the reports of the Austrian Intelligence Officer, Captain Bukvich, we shall see what was the att.i.tude of the Slavs and the Italianists respectively towards the Government, and hence towards each other. It may be that the very loyal, some would call it cringing, att.i.tude of the Italianists was forced upon them by the great inferiority of their numbers. What they were aiming at, with very few exceptions, were the benefits of the moment, rather than those others of which here and there an isolated Italianist would dream, when between the smoke of his cigarette he saw the Italian tricolour flying over Dalmatia. If this lonely dreamer had gone to Italy before the War with the purpose of awakening in people an interest in what some day might happen, he would have found that most of the Italians had never heard of Dalmatia. But among those who had heard were the officials of the "Liga n.a.z.ionale," which a.s.sisted the Dalmatian Italians to support those famous schools. In a report (Information No. 668) which Padouch, the successor of Bukvich as Intelligence Officer, sent from Split on September 25, 1915, to the Headquarters at Mostar, we are told that "an Italian of this place, with whom I confidentially spoke on the subject before the outbreak of the War, openly and candidly told me that in their Liga school one-third of the children, at the most, have parents whose nationality has always been Italian. The others are children of the people, of that cla.s.s which on account of its humble social position has lost its national consciousness. He told me that the parents received subsidies and the children clothes, school-books, etc., gratuitously."

The reports of Captain Bukvich were sent to his superiors at Mostar. No doubt a great many doc.u.ments were destroyed just before the Austrian collapse, as the Government had ordered to be done--three boxes, presumably containing copies, are known to have been committed to the flames at Split, while at Zadar there was a wholesale destruction on October 31. Yet a fair number of interesting papers survived, princ.i.p.ally at Mostar, Castelnuovo, Metkovic and Dubrovnik. In 1913 Captain Bukvich sent many reports to the effect that Split was completely anti-Austrian and that the Italian party were the only loyal people. On September 16 he said that the inhabitants believe in the coming of a great Serbia, and he substantiates this with numerous instances. "The students over thirteen years of age," he says, "are all Serbophil, and most of the masters, professors and State clerks.... The chief paper in Split is Serbophil and has been confiscated twenty-seven times between October 1912 and September 1913." He reported on August 19, 1913 (Information No. 211), to the General Staff of the Imperial and Royal 16th Corps at Dubrovnik with reference to the Francis Joseph celebrations of the previous day: "... only the public buildings and a few other houses were beflagged. One must notice the satisfactory conduct and the finely decorated houses of the autonomous Italian party." On February 27, 1914 (Information No. 62), he narrates that a big dinner was given at the bishop's palace to celebrate the centenary of the incorporation of Dalmatia into the Habsburg monarchy; all the chief citizens were invited to this dinner, but the Croat deputies, Dr.

Trumbic, Dr. Smodlaka and other Croats declined with thanks. Dr.

Salvi, however, of the autonomous Italian party, put in an appearance.

On July 31 (Information No. 267) he refers to the mobilized men who marched through the town and were put on board ship. "The att.i.tude," he says, "of the Slav _intelligentsia_ was quite pa.s.sive. The Italian band waited for the troops, a procession was improvised, great ovations took place, and enthusiasm was shown by the Autonomous party, who called: 'Hoch Austria! Hoch the Emperor! Hoch the War! Down with Serbia! Down with the Serbian munic.i.p.ality!'" A certain Demeter, an Austrian naval lieutenant, was a spectator of these scenes. He made some notes for the typist, afterwards embodied in a report to the Military Command at Mostar and marked "Secret No. 147." He relates, with unconcealed fury, how the Slavs not merely displayed no raptures when the War proclamation was read, but walked away in the midst of the recital and refrained from following the band, which later on paraded the town. Only the Italians, he said, exhibited the proper feeling. They did more than that; for with the same date, July 31, one finds an interesting letter from the "Societa del Tiro al Bersaglio" of Split, which called itself a shooting club, but was not in possession of arms; it was, as a matter of fact, a gymnastic society with a political object. The secretary, Luigi Puisina, wrote on the 31st to the authorities, to say that they had determined to offer themselves in uniform for any service of a military nature ("per quei qualsiasi servizi di carattere militare"). Bukvich reported on August 3 (Information No. 268) that for the present these gymnasts will be used as special constables, and he adds, to one's astonishment, that this has caused the Slav _intelligentsia_ to be still more profoundly depressed. Nothing could elude the eagle eye of Bukvich: on December 17, 1914, he noted that the small boys in the streets were winking and smiling at each other in consequence of the news that the Austrians had been driven out of Belgrade.

When Italy entered the War a handful of Dalmatian Italians--I believe six from Zadar and two from Split--went to serve in the Italian army.

Five others, four of them from Zadar, were interned at Graz; with these exceptions the Italians and Italianists were very much more faithful to the Austrian Empire than were the Croats, hundreds of whom were hanged or shot or lodged in fortresses. The Italians, however, persist in charging the Croats with unbounded fidelity; in fact, it is one of their most powerful arguments. They themselves in Split continued to do what the Austrians expected of them: those who were of military age became units of the army, while the rest of them, with one exception, were not incommoded. The President of their club, the "Cabinetto di Lettura,"

that Dr. Salvi of whom we have heard, was not only most a.s.siduous in addressing letters of devotion and fidelity to the Emperor, in promoting all kinds of patriotic Austrian manifestations, but as the particular friend of Mr. Tszilvas, the Austrian sub-prefect, he was wont to go down with him to the harbour and watch the embarkation, in chains, of the Slav _intelligentsia_. The only Italian who suffered this fate was a Mr.

Tocigl, with whom Dr. Salvi had had a personal difference.

CONSEQUENT SUSPICION OF THIS MINORITY

One cannot therefore be surprised if the Slavs, on the collapse of Austria, regarded the Italian party, and especially Dr. Salvi, with some suspicion. Since they had always placed themselves at Austria's disposal, it would be most natural if they attempted by a _coup d'etat_ to save the Empire. Yet this was the moment when they joined the Slavs and helped to turn the Austrians out. There was no notion then that the Italian army would succeed the Austrian; and it was not until Christmas that this army tried to enter Split. When they proposed to come ash.o.r.e they were prevented by the French, Americans and British; thereupon they threatened to come overland--although the town was not included in the London Treaty--but again they were prevented. In February, on the occasion of a conference between the four Admirals, there was a demonstration against Italy, the commandant of the _Puglia_ being struck and Admiral Rombo's chief of staff insulted. There was a widespread feeling of resentment at the way in which the _Puglia_ was, as we have seen, availing herself of the baser elements in the town for the furtherance of her propaganda; but what put the match to the bonfire was the omission of certain Italians in uniform to salute the Serbian National Anthem. The Admirals held an inquiry, found that "officers belonging to an Allied nation have been molested." They announced that they would not tolerate a repet.i.tion of such acts, and that inter-Allied patrols, acting with Serbian troops and the local police force, would take measures to prevent them. On March 8, however, there was a renewal of the troubles; and again the Admirals made an inquiry. The Italian member of the Commission added to his signature that he disapproved of the findings and that he would present a special report.

ALLIED CENSURE OF THE ITALIAN NAVY

"By general conviction," says the Admirals' summing up, "there exist at Split two political parties which are in sharp contradiction as to the future status of Dalmatia. The presence of Allied ships, and especially the Italian ones, has increased this contradiction rather than diminished it. On the day when disorders broke out at Split a few Italian sailors had made a small demonstration a little before the incidents. Certain movements and words on the part of youths, sympathizers with Yugoslavia, offended the Italian sailors. They were bold enough to arrest two of these youths.... This procedure of arresting them naturally and inevitably moved the great majority of the bystanders and was the actual cause of outrages. This act was approved by the Italian Naval Authorities, who accordingly are to be considered responsible for these disorders.... Several civilians and Serbian soldiers were wounded." The report adds that some Italian sailors were armed with knives and revolvers, contrary to the regulations of the Italian Naval Authorities, and concludes with these words: "By arresting some citizens the Italian sailors have committed an illegal act, which they carried out according to instructions that were given them by the Italian Naval Authorities. Accordingly the Commission considers these authorities responsible for the injuries inflicted on the Serbian soldiers."