Van Loon's Adventures Among The Hapsburgs-Or Where Is Zita?
Van Loon's Adventures Among The Hapsburgs-Or Where Is Zita? *I*HE trfaMc, of course, is that we do not know * a damn thing. Or rather that we know a tot of things bat that, being decent American...
...Russia's prestige . la the Balkans has been growing with every new victory of her armies...
...Aether-of Baiian Firebrand...
...It is the same in this war...
...They are shy and afraid of looking foolish, all the more so because there is much humor in England, and ridicule is a very powerful weapon here...
...The English and the Master Race By J. B. PRIESTLEY w Dear Ivan: | SAID, towards the end of my first letter, that * the emphasis throughout English life has been on character, a certain balanced quality of living, and some moral values...
...Should Soviet Russia harbor imperialist designs in the Balkan peninsula she may be able to carry out such designs not only without active resistance on the part of the local peoples, but with their actual cooperation excepting, of course, Turkey and Rumania...
...Often they find it very difficult to talk about serious things, not because they have given no thought to them but because they do not want to be laughed at or to appear pompous and priggish...
...The English are particularly responsive to any appeal to their chivalry...
...He broke his Ehrerrwort as ta officer and a gentleman and used Swietsibad st a jumping-board for a little expedites*1 ts'ahs-gary...
...In tide respect the United States has a clean record, for until recently it has practically no Berktn policy...
...Koala Todoroff is well-equipped te write on this subject...
...The typioal Naii is exactly the kind of man that the English detest...
...On tike other hand, we live on a small, cool, ever crowded island, where people feel cfttOpeftoB to protect themselves by adapting a lass-isii manner...
...Russia's part, however, increased in importance even before this war...
...This means that we English understand each other so well that we do not trouble to explain ourselves fully, rather like members of a large iurapy family...
...They are not in the least sly, cold and cunning, but are warm-hearted affectionate people who are shy and rather afraid of letting other people see how deeply they feel...
...This Lady, who had undoubtedly iestigBtgi the whole expedition (she is a speemtat sttkat sort of intrigue), arrived in the viih^Hpn' Bath* the night before her aad Knight reternefl tea* and spent her time waiting for him at the home of a leading local lawyer...
...It is strongly held by members of all classes, and there is perhaps more of this shyness and reserve among the workers than there is among the wealthier classes...
...The Slavonic nations of the peninsula are strongly attached to their political independence, bat the political mistakes of the Western democracies and the rottenness of the local regimes have crested all the psychological prisamaa for a unification with Raseia not annexation imposed by armed fore*, bat a vetaatery unification...
...h Dr...
...and a feretgn policy of international cooper a tioa (hroa gh regional federation...
...According to my same Quebec .friends, be is now awaiting an opportunity to fly to London, where he would be conveniently at hand should the Allied troops occupy Trieste or Fiame, where he could then make his appearance amidst the plaudits of a grateful people or a hail of bullets from the boys who today are making that part of the world so delightfully unsafe for their Nasi oppressors...
...There hi no imast why the Austrian*, if they so wished, saseli not have a King...
...J. B PRIESTLEY Kremlin Exploits New Prestige In Drive for Control of Balkans By KOSTA TODOROFF IMPORT ANT is TiAcrJr'a part h'a* always been in the Balkans it recedes into the * background whe*Vw$ compare with that of Russia...
...And unless the bright boys who work far the heirs of the late Baron de Reuter (the title was a German one...
...His Mother prevented this...
...x It is the same in this war...
...s candy manufacturer ia France aad the leader of the Bulgarian Peasant Party...
...The Hungarians did not share hU vVrm, and His Majesty was obliged to take s tnta and to return to Switzerland, wham ta am met by his wife...
...When Britain stood along in 1940, with the whole might of Germany and Italy organized to destroy her, any idea of coming to any agreement with these evil powers was unthinkable to the people hem^nd they would have instantly destroyed any government that would have tried to reach such an agreement...
...You may say, with some truth, that there is something absurdly youthful, almost <»chool-boyish and adolescent, in this queer shyness, and I would not deny the charge...
...He had been admitted to the B>HsskjB Repvblic aa the understanding that M hasht absolutely refrain from any kind e*aoathal activity...
...Every mistake of the Western Allies is a step towards the union of the Balkan Slavs with Russia...
...Schwenender (not to be confoapdei # his namesake in New York, another boy fnm Buchs...
...English peopie are chivalrous and romantic at heart but have been taught to adopt an unromantic, matter-of-fact manner...
...imprisoned sev...
...The magnificent speeches of Churchill at this time exactly expressed the^feelings of the English people, whose chivalrous and indomitable spirit Churchill understands...
...In the saonuag ft* noble couple was escorted by the 8wh» ymP to a hotel, where the former Bmsnror...
...Throughout the nineteenth century Tsarist'Russia was a political factor of prime importance in that region...
...here I stand and I know as little as I did' before...
...To this policy at federation...
...But the poor fellow has two things egajaat him...
...Mama, who wotud afssj the first fortnight within her old demtta hanging her enemies in the best Hapabargaa and Parmesan manner, charging the rnlatisj, of her victims for the rope and the sssyS of the executioner...
...And Their Majesties of Norway ajLtB Netherlands have,one enormous advantage aC their good coumns of the House of Hapmfa Lorraine...
...Some visitors often make the mistake of thinking that the English people who attend to them in shops, hotels, and so forth are "servile" when in fact these people are only practicing their own code of good quiet manners...
...Fours gtneerelp...
...Zita Maria Addgonde Michelle, Raphael le Gabrielle Josephine An tenia Louisa Agnes of Bourbon Parma...
...eral times, he Was one* sentenced to death...
...ceived, they, considered it such a wonderful victory for the King of Jerusalem and the Great - Voyvode af Serbia (try and get it) that they must tell their moat intimate friends, and...
...They got interested in her when she arrived in Quebec and they have maintained their interest ever since...
...Read your newspapers and find out what they tell you...
...Hp is cruel, and they hate-cruelty...
...I asked my Washington friends whether they had perhaps seen a heavily veiled old lady enter the White House through the backdoor, but they told me they were riot even allowed within sight of'the front door'and they knew nothing...
...Russia has announced her opposition, in favor of bilateral pacts with each, and eventually unification under Soviet domination...
...But there is-one little straw which may show the way the wind is blowing...
...This influence has had a long history and for several Balkan countries Russia has for almost two centuries remained their chief hope of salvation, _ _ OU SSI A "helped to liberate the Serbs, Ru-manians and Greeks from Turkish captivity...
...Benes of the Cxechoslav Republic was a third-rater and not worthy of his attention (watch out, Francis-Joseph-Otto, you may be mistaken there), he discontinued his oratorical pergrinations and disappeared from view...
...But certainly Russia's active interference in the relations of the Yugoslav guerilla group, i.e., in support of Tito as against Mikhailovitch...
...So, like the late Dr...
...Thus, it is far easier fat England than it is in most u>usar*ss for people to build up a reserve of nervous energy, on which they can draw in an emergency...
...Politically, the English people are genuine moral idealists, capable of fighting and enduring not merely for their own security but on behalf of a great moral idea...
...And surely one reason for this is that both you and the Americans live in vast continental territories with extreme and rather hostile climates, in conditions that frequently challenge seives freely to each other...
...Eastern Europe TTHE com-* man people of each of the Balkan countries I have long 1 aapired to demo cratic and agrarian I reforms, do-til t ieaily...
...Therefore when any English statesman needs the support of the peoples, for some government action, he must ask for that support on moral and idealistic grounds...
...Their record as constitutional rSSt ia Al...
...Or rather that we know a tot of things bat that, being decent American newspapermen and having been asked sot to mention certain things, we actually refrain from mentioning them, which is the same as not knowing anything...
...The Balkan Slavs may easily accept some form of unification with Russia...
...One is his est...
...And in the second place, the poor fellow pat brought up the wrong way...
...but by special permission of the Good.Queen the dear Baron Was allowed to bear.it in England) in-dulige in one of tiieir old and familiar tricks, we must rive in an offlcfal ignorance...
...i' * * * *f*HE people here, and especially the workers, * would not fight for a single day for colonial possessions and markets and raw materials,, but once," they have grasped the fact that a high nioral^ issue is involved, that the liberty and happiness of decent quiet people everywhere are threatened, they *will fight to the bitter end...
...How does Russia utilise this exceptionally favorable situation in the Balkan T Has she definite objectives of conquest...
...Which is slightly absurd in a Democracy, at least in our hind of a democracy though it would be quite normal in the So I don't know what I am writing about...
...They are doing that in this war...
...They have deep strong feelings hidden behind an unemotional, reserved exterior...
...The Swim hem f proverb, "Tell p...
...f . * There is a little P.S...
...They answered by return mail: "The Old Lady blabbed...
...Throughout the last war I served in the infantry and spent long periods in the trenches in France...
...I am quite mftmEE believe my Austrian friends, who assure * that their Otto is a charming fellow, aerkmsm all Hell and no nonsense about him...
...It so happens that I hare friends in Canada and it so happens that' my friends, charming people of the' old liberal variety (now, alas, rapidly dying out), have for years played a delightful,game which they call "Zita, Zita, where is Zita ? " The Zita they so unceremoniously refer to is Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty (A.D...
...Russia again embarked upon a nationalist policy...
...Naturally, from the moment of Hitler's attack ea Kaaaia, the latter country further increased ft* political activity in the Balkan peninsula, and it has been growing in strength as the Russian army comes closer to the Danubian estuary...
...But I will explain about those jokes, and the apparent frivotousness of the English, and our habit of unoer-statement, in nay next letter...
...It is a profound weakness of the German temperament that it enjoys both bullying and being mi Hied...
...type would be thrown out of any English public house half an hour after he had entered it...
...44T*E general feeling about such matters is thatmS nation.after this war should have the segS government R wants, for that is tn« hssy ja We can ever hope to establish any kind pf hjifiS peace...
...Now, I hope, you can see how all the misunderstandings begin...
...The fact is that the English people in general tan only be moved into action by what they take to be some real moral issue...
...T'HESE questions can only be answered hy speculation...
...In their own phrase, which is a great favorite among working women, "they keep themselves to themselves" far too'much...
...His nam...
...If the Western democracies do net wish to see this happen they must be particularly careful in their Balkan policies, they moat avoid all amateur improvisation of which we have had so many examples in the past...
...Each class in England is expected to be good-mannered, and the more privileges you possess the better your manners are supposed to be...
...o* OUT pMpfe Instead of panicking, out people went about their business, exchanged a lot of new little jokes, and defied Goeri.tg to do his worst...
...Chetnik activities in Bulgaria are also inspired by the Bulgarian patriots' devotion towards Russia, and all the anti-German demonstrations in that country are going on under the banner of fraternal affection for the Russian people...
...A very good example of this misunderstanding is the charge, so often brought against us in the past, that we are a sly hypocritical people...
...1 stressed the important fact that as a people we have now lived for a long time, undisturbed, free from invasion, on our small temperate island...
...Netherlands, and on the Whole I^eaSg>t?a|B of their returning to their old jobs...
...During all that time, I never heard a fellow soldier utter a single patriotic sentiment, and the songs we sang were never serious but were always grumbling, humorous, satirical ditties, and yet these same men offered their lives, endured the most terrible conditions and fought with grim tenacity...
...And this is what Hitler and his friends could not understand...
...I only have a few pieces - of a meet intriguing jig-saw puxxle W-egt tnl and.I have pat them together aa ?919 The other pieces may come my way fcX coarse of time, but the time apparently km fl, yet come and we must continue HjaTm game of "Otto, Otto, where is Otto# '¦ j Meanwhile, the good Austrian* wh*'|sjsj)fl| devoted to the cause of His Imperial .and «S Apostolic majesty have asked me, why rg«f3 bet up about their little boy blue...
...Let me deal now with certain widespread misconceptions...
...And all this, of course, can easily be overdone...
...After Munich, the ¦people here suddenly realized the character of Hitler and his Nazi Germany, and they made up their minds that these scoundrels and their methods were intolerable...
...He gave his Ehr*nwort a#*hn enter and gentleman that he would strietif esey am stipulation...
...I watched my newspaper most carefully, but they told me just exactly nothing...
...Young Otto had a Father and that Fathsr fter the collapse of Austria had foead at asylum in the hospitable Republic at Sulbsr-land...
...I am going to put it together as neatly as I can...
...see William Roscoe Thayer's Lift sal Tim** of Cewaur...
...That is the fact that His Majesty the Emperor and Great-Voyvode of the Essex House has suddenly and without any explanation cancelled all the lectures be was going to give this winter...
...The Russian revolution, it seemed for a while, reduced Russia's role to that of a revolutionagh Jetebrand from which sparks, because of Russia's proximity, frequently fell into the Balkan tinder box...
...She hreagkt him up as if he were to rule an ahtpfrt that had got stuck in the year 154S and that tat1 never got beyond the point of view of* the osyi of - the Counter-Reformation and the Tatty Year...
...She and her son were - so delighted with the reception they had re...
...He is a bully, and they hate bullish- He is a braggart, and they dislike boasting ,nnd bragging...
...who are poor psychologists, did not take into account, when they loosed their terror botntdaf...
...We hear that Her Majesty has just got Reisegeld (a grift from His Worship in the archepiscopa...
...From the time of the Wehrmacht's appearance on the lower Danube and on the shores of the Black sea, war between Russia and Germany became unevitable...
...After his experiences in Milwaukee (of all places), where nasty little students asked him uncomfortable questions, and after having told us that the King of Italy (bless His Majesty, that noble friend of democracy) was at heart a fine upstanding fellow who had always had the cause of the people close to his manly bosom, and that Mr...
...I got them in a perfectly honest way, and as nokAj},r ku tn\A *M« th.» T <><»n not play with my little pic ture-pu rile...
...DUT I am like 140 million other Americans...
...QOME of our people repress themselves far ** too much...
...It is up to them to say atat they want just as soon as they can rfcta, preasion to their wishes...
...But you will, I trust, begin to see how easy it is to misunderstand such people...
...He has had a colorful careerhe has been a restauranteur in New York and a delegate from Bulgaria to the League of Nations...
...Fatostu...
...For in England and this applies perhaps even more - to the workers than to any other class children are "taught manners" very thoroughly and so tend to be well-mannered when they grow up...
...That was aa error, but a pardonable ana, for it would have been even worse to have had a bsd Balkan policy...
...The Kremlin is now exploiting to the fall Red Army victories, increasing Russian prestige, to advance Russian national interests in the Balkans...
...IT is significant, I think that our American ¦ friends, like you Russians, are far more spontaneous, outspoken, dramatic, than we English are...
...It means, too, that an outsider may have some difficulty in understanding us and may easily misunderstand us...
...I relayed the information to Quebec and I asked them'how they thought they knew what they knew...
...There is to my mind something very yonng about most sections of the English people...
...palace) and has been told that she may pay a visit to Washington...
...WOW some ten days ago, shortly after the * ' glorious triumph of the Moscow conference had been presented to the American public, they wrote me and said: "Better keep an eye en Washington...
...English people actually have strong feelings, as our great wealth of poetic literature amply proves, and I believe that the English in general are more often governed by their feelings than are some other peoples who are more superficially emotional, like the Latin races...
...aa» given enough time to find himself another kuau, but where he was made to understand Mm unmistakable terms that the democratic <NeU conception about the given ward, and a gentleman was somewhat different flee the Hapsburg notions eoncernfhg an Ehreujlel* I am sorry, but History is History, asd * can not afford to take any risks witit the sm of the late Emperor Carl...
...The young fighter pilots who in 1940 won the Battle of Britain, and helped to save the world from Fascism by their reckless courage and superb.skill, would still talk lightly and mockingly, not saying what they really fait, but content to let their glorious actions sneak for them...
...And the reference by the German' Chancellor of that time to the treaty tha/t Germany had broken as "a mere scrap of paper" deeply shocked the English people...
...When Hitler, prior to his open aggression against the Balkan States which refused to join the Axis, occupied Rumania and Bulgaria, Russia quite unambiguously manifested her displeasure and alarm...
...That modern American is now w0rjf7p.it stoat the fate of his sons, who sre spread all omrdta face of the globe trying to bring about trtd) in which no Hapsburg autocracy will em agent be possible...
...I know nothing...
...Basil everything and works hard at his non-exMh> jab...
...I have never spoken in such unpleaawsl manner about their Majesties of Norwaye/j...
...But what I do want you to understand here, my dear I|pn, is that this idea of the quiet, well-manneged, considerate "lady" or "gentleman" is not something that belongs to one privileged class, which may have imposed it on other classes...
...And neither they nor their anasjgb| ever hanged anybody...
...I have never believed in the idea that the English behave like an oWpeople...
...You MM net, as people say, "living on your nerves," And that is what the N'szis...
...The average Storm-troop...
...And do not imagine we always behave like fish...
...to my story,' as hem af no great importance at this moment, bat asms of us remember further back than ymtarasj...
...It tends to encourage a certain stiffness and reserve, and often prevents people from freely and spontaneously expressing themselves...
...American friends have often told jam that altar some time in England they began to feel cooler aad calmer and more slowed-down, so potent is the atmosphere bate...
...r. ¦"HIS may have made her a sympathetic jar-* son in the eyes of the Vatican and of far State Department, but it will hardly hare endeared her to the average modern America...
...All this may possibly seem rather innocent and unrealistic to you, but I can assure you that is exactly what the great mass of English people felt...
...Why not try it...
...Many refugees here have told me that the ordinary English people seem to them the most polite people they have ever known...
...But we have been trained from childhood not to make a great fuss about our feelings, if only because such a fuss is ill-mannered...
...They' are not easily roused, these," people, and take time before,they make any promises, but OncdWney are roused and have given their word, thcrtaasTio stopping them...
...but a most respectable dental surge* whom I am happy to recommend to al anfstun from dental disturbances...
...This policy affected her attitude towards Hitter, 1939an, Russia considerably increased her diplomatic actfvtty on the peninsula...
...I hare got hold of a few pieces oit a picture-puxale...
...Now of course there are persons here who are sly and hypocritical, just as there are such persons in every country, but this charge against the whole English people is quite false and is the result of a- misunderstanding that I can easily explain...
...This emphasis on good manners, like the unique class system with which it is allied, has of course its weaknesses...
...They are the direct opposite of people who promise much and perform little, for the English people will not only keep their word but will actually do more than they have promised to do...
...then the most intimate friends blabbed and we all knew it and, of course, we did a little blabbing of our own.," That was a very nice story, but respectable newspapermen can't base their contentions upon hlabbery (even Imperial and Royal Apostolic blabbery...
...Tell fils," and we seat a repetition of those uncomfortable eventide...
...You should hear our factory workers cheering V...
...And there seems to be no doubt that should Bulgaria be threatened with grave punishment for her conduct ever since 1941 Bulgaria will certainly prefer to join the Soviet Union and thus to escape severe punishment...
...For they considered her in the light of some pre-historic organism (like the Horse-Shoe Crab), and they wanted to know how the creature would develop in the democratic atmosphere of our dear Sister Nation of the North...
...Please" and "Thank you" and "Sorry," these refugees have pointed out, are easily the words most often heard...
...where he expected to be recogatssj m King...
...In Yugoslavia both guerilla groups have proclaimed their friendship to Russia, though Russia supports only the group led by Tito, which has pannounced pro-Communist tendencies...
...the year 1921...
...In I8T7-78 the liberated Bulgaria and, hence, Russophile traditions in all Balkan countries have deep roots in popular mass consciousness irrespective of these peoples' attitude toward the political regime which at the moment may dominate the most powerful of all Slavonic countries...
...For example, at the beginning of the last war, hundreds of thousands of us (I was one niyself) voluntarily enlisted in the army to fight for Belgium, which had been wantonly invaded by Germany...
...The English people do not want to bully others and strongly object to being bullied themselves...
...And that modern America, atka has willingly and most generously seat Ms ants into this battle, would be much haayla jf it knew that the former Empress af Amtaa shared those well-founded anxieties about sane beloved boy who "had disappeared 'faun "$Hr because he did his duty and enshtaff*%*t for the world's freedom frem .tyaamr ani slavery...
...The English class system, faulty though R is, does not involve any elaborate arrangement by which one set of persons can kick another set bfft are in turn liable to be kicked by a superior set...
...seems to indicate that Russia intends, to say the least, to include the Balkans in the sphere of her influence...
...T)iey would be better if they let down the barriers and did not hesitate to say what was in their minds and hearts...
...But they Slight bam expected that the candidate for this honor ahmW be a eifisen of this modern world and stapkj know Ms way about in the world of1 the rest 1943...
...There are obvious disadvantages about this, of course, but there are advantages too...
...Is she now as in the past malting a bid for the possession of the straits and for direct domination of the overland routes leading to the Bosporus...
...This is not true, except perhaps about sex...
...They are in the mass* not self-centered and cynical but strongly idealistic in their politics...
...Such bills, duly reea^tti, exist...
...Many of the things our statesmen have done in the past may have been done from quite cynical motives, but those statesmen have alwwys'beefi compelled to disguise those motives from the people, who had to be appealed to, on these moral and idealistic grounds...
...A term of service in the Wt» States Army might teach the young Bias bsBW...
...Todoroff now heads the Free Belgada Committee in Ceaadfc...
...First, that the English are hypocritical...
Vol. 26 • December 1943 • No. 51
