VIII.
Conclusion
Where the Turk and Napoleon failed, the Serb cannot hope to win. The apparent success of Belgrade schemes was possible only because of a complete overturn of world affairs.
A new state like Jugoslavia must have strong elements of cohesion to hold together through its formative years. Already there are signs of trouble. Croatia is evidently seeking a way out of the group. The later efforts of Serbia to float loans have met unexpected difficulties. A fierce guerilla war in the Black Mountain goes on and will continue until the usurpers withdraw,
Montenegro cannot be conquered. She will go on fighting till she fights her way back, though it take a century!
There is a latent consciousness in other nations of their responsibility for permitting Montenegro to be wronged by an Ally. They know that she entered the war before Belgium and that if they had given King Nicolas the same support they gave King Albert, Montenegro would now be enjoying a well-deserved independence.
The slow inevitable reaction against the false propaganda of Serbia is setting in. Her success depended upon the complete subsidence of Balkan trouble and upon the selfish feeling on the part of other nations that their own comfort could be secured by letting sleeping dogs lie. There will, however, be little rest for the peacefully inclined nations till the maladjustments are corrected.
In March, 1917, I said, in an address on "The Question of Alsace and Lorraine":
"Let us remember that the future peace of the world, of America itself, will not be assured if the war ends otherwise than by the return to their cradles of all peoples who have been robbed from their mother countries, and the integral restitution of all the thefts committed by Germany and Austria in the last century, of Poland, of Schleswig-Holstein, of Triest, of Alsace, of Lorraine of Herzegovina and of Bosnia."
It was in the following year that Serbia placed an arbitrary hand upon Montenegro. Time will correct that injustice as the older historic wrongs are already righted or in process of being set right. But why run the risk of another war, when present action would remove the most obvious incitements to conflict?
Up to the present, the case has been going by default. Many who sympathize with Montenegro say that it is too late to dislodge the usurper, possession being nine points of the law. But Serbia's possession has never been complete.
Others say that America must not interfere in Europe's affairs. This is not a case of meddling, for the annexation of Montenegro was accomplished during its "occupation" by an Allied army while America was one of the Allies. We are further pledged through promises made at the Peace Congress. And these promises were known to the people of the United States and never disavowed.
America shed her best blood to free Cuba, simply because tyranny to a neighbor was intolerable. Is she not in honor bound to keep her promise to these brave people who trusted her word?
Without endangering herself in the least, this nation can exert a helpful influence in the present crisis. In a perfectly courteous diplomatic fashion she can make it plain to Serbia and the rest of the world that she favors a just and full consideration of Montenegro's case, and that she will not continue to stand for betrayal of an Ally.
When the forces of liberty and justice within and without act in harmony, Montenegro will be restored.