MONTENEGRO: Secession? - Time, Monday, June 04, 1923, електронен архив
Изпратено от admin on Нед., 14/12/2014 - 23:11
MONTENEGRO: Secession?
Monday, June 04, 1923
Montenegro (tiny country-mostly mountains) has an active godfather: Hamilton Fish, Jr., of the U.S. Kouse of Representatives.
Montenegrons desire to regain independence from Yugo-Slavia. Congressman Fish leads an American committee to assist them.
Before the war, Montenegro was free. Its boundaries were defined: north by Austro-Hungary, south by Albania, east by Serbia, west by the Adriatic. After the war was started to join Montenegro to the newly formed Serb, Croat and Slovene State (Yugo-Slavia). The "Big Four" (Lloyd George, Clemenceau, Orlando, Wilson) decided that a plebiscite should be held. Meanwhile, YugoSlavian troops occupied the territory; the Montenegrin population for the most part fled to the hills. When the plebiscite resulted in a favorable vote for adhesion to Yugo-Slavia, it was held that this result was not the will of the majority of Montenegrins. But the country was definitely joined to Yugo-Slavia after the death of King Nicholas on March 1, 1921.
One argument advanced by those who favor Montenegrin union with Yugo-Slavia runs to the effect that " King Nicholas had more than one string to his bow during the war"; it is felt that he did not wholeheartedly espouse the cause of the Allies. Whether or not that question affects the status of Montenegro or Montenegrin liberty today, it is always brought up in that connection.
It is important to remember that the present King of Yugo-Slavia, Alexander I, is a grandson of King Nicholas.
Hamilton Fish, Jr., is a young Republican with a record.
It took him only three years to graduate from Harvard (cum laude in political science). In 1909 he was football captain, but his team lost to Yale, 8-0.
In 1916 Fish left the New York Legislature to lead a company of Colored Infantry to the Battle of Champagne. He returned with a croix de guerre; went into the insurance business; married Grace, daughter of Alfred Chapin, former Democratic mayor of Brooklyn; was elected to Congress. He it was who introduced the bill into Congress to honor " The Unknown Soldier."
