SPIRIT OF THE SERB.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1915, Page 12 (Supplement)

SPIRIT OF THE SERB.

THROUGH THE LITTLE LAND OF COURAGE. (By Mrs. Arthur Moore, in London Daily Chronicle). Crossing the frontier from Greece at Ghevgheli, I made the acquaintance for the first time of the Serbs in their own country. The Serbian official is a singularly delightful person; he greets you in fluent French, pilots you through the weary task of 'luggage registration and other routine business incident to crossing a frontier in war time, and without wasting time on trivial conversation he immediately opens the subject of international interest with the question, "Quelles nouvelles avez vous de la guerre ?"

I wa3 at once struck with the intimate knowledge displayed by the Serb not only of Eastern politics, but also of the minutest details of the campaign on the western front. He deprecates his own country's splendid share in the war by modestly explaining, "Nous sommes un petit pays et puis nous sommes epuises, qu'est ce que vous voulez que nous fassions apres la troisieme annee de la gUerre?" Nevertheless, he speaks with pride of le petit pays, and is frankly anxious that it should be appreciated. It cannot fail to be. Travelling northwards one passes through the most beautiful country, the only indication that It is at war being the soldier who at short intervals guards the line. Rather a pathetic figure he makes, standing grim and determined, and managing to look every inch a soldier despite the rags which are all his country has left to clothe him in. He is no stranger to hunger either, a3 is shown by the avidity with which he accepts food offered to him by travellers. But his unselfishness is greater than his appetite, for I have seldom seen a Serbian soldier eat all he is given. He divides the food into two portions, eats one and puts the other in his handkerchief. On being questioned, one man explained to me that he would be relieved presently, and that no train would pass during his comrade's turn of duty. UNITY OF THE SERBIANS.

The unity of the Serbians must impress the visitor. Every man is a soldier and every man possesses the characteristic of absolute determination and tremendous reserve force. Of good physique, inured to hardships of every description, almost incapable of feeling fatigue, and with wonderful recuperative powers, they make fine fighters, and, seeing them, one begins to understand why the Austrians were so thoroughly defeated and turned out of Serbia in spite of an overwhelming advantage of numerical strength. The one boast I have heard the Serbians make is that there is not one foot of their territory in tlie hands of the enemy. This is an achievement for which they deserve more credit than those who have not visited the country will readily understand. Skoplje, that picturesque town wrested by Serbia from her enemy, Turkey, is a city of contrasts with its large modern buildings and narrow winding streets, its few up-to-date shops and quaint Old World market—a place where East and West seem to meet. There is much in the Turkish quarter which fascinates and reminds one at the same time of the days when the town was named Uskub, and was under the rule of the Sultan, but the modern part provides the more solid satisfaction of improved sanitation and better living conditions. 'Road building, with Turkish tombstones collected from the ancient cemeteries for the chief materia], and other municipal work goes on, in spite of the war, most of the labor being provided by Austrians. These prisoners, happy in their captivity, are mostly Slavs—Czechs and Croatians—who are enemies in name only. The majority of them liad surrendered at the first opportunity, and they admitted, with engaging frankness,, that the last profession in the world which appealed to them was that of a soldier. I have a clear recollection of Czechs resident in Petrograd advertising themselves as such last year, and enjoying all the privileges of an ally, but here in Southern Europe I found their brothers, though possessed of the same Slav sympathies, forced to fight against their will bv their Austrian rulers. I did not need their eager assurance to convince me that they would not have gone back to Austria to fight had they been elsewhere in August last.

Life in Skoplje is comparatively restful just now. With typhus almost a thing of the past, food plentiful and fairly cheap, the Serbians are reposing themselves ready for whatever the future may hold in store for them. A REPOSITORY OF SECRETS.

Nisli, which lias been temporarily, reconverted into the capital, holds the State secrets of Serbia just now. Besides the numerous officials whose duties make residence there necessary, many of Belgrade's inhabitants have migrated southward for greater safety. The population of Nish in normal times is something like 30,000, and the little town is taxed almost beyond its powers by the demitnds for accommodation for something like an additional 00,000. It has also a large number of prisoners to support. The 'ife of its Austrian prisoners—wlio, as already stated, are mostly Slavs—is a particularly happy one. 1 made friends with a number of men who are busy on the extension of the Serbian Red Cross premises, and found them all contented, working as far as possible, at the trades which they follow in normal times. One thing which appeals to them enormously is that the Serbs trust t hem enough to pay them for their work, and give them permits enabling them to go into the town to spend their money. One of them, a house painter by trade, told me that he was earning two francs a day, adding, a little wistfully, that in peace times he made as much as seven at home; but one could see that the handling of even two francs a day took away nearly all the sting of captivity. Economically the inhabitants of Nish »re not so happily placed as those of Skoplje. Everything is very expensive, md salt, sugar and coffee in particul»r are almost beyond the reach of the poorer people. It has often been said that Serbia has no poor; it would be truer to say that she has no paupers. The Serbian does not beg for coppers in the street, but it does not need any very great insight to see the really necessitous condition of the populace. In an ordinary Serbian house in Nish today you drink tea without sugar, eat bread without butter, and refrain from salt. The Serb is an optimist, and talks hopefully of a good harvest; but it is apparent that the plucky little country is at the end of her resources. To an «xteat It U *n artificial state oi poverty

brought about by the war. Some of these people actually own a little property—for which they can collect no rents—or have a little money invested, which they cannot touch, and it is just because they are not a nation of paupers, but a nation in a state of distress, out of which it cannot rise unaided, that countries happier placed in the matter of supplies should assist Serbia.