Initiation and initiative : an exploration of the life and ideas of Dimitrije Mitrinović

THE EXILE 45

ever happen again. But it left in my mind a strong impression that there was something, if not exactly sinister, at least uncanny about Mitrinovic . . .

Amid the uncertainties which blur the image of Mitrinovic the man, I can bear witness to the fact that he was both accomplished and erudite. He spoke a choicely worded English, to which he imparted a solemn and musical intonation. Evidence of his wide reading and critical discernment asserted itself casually in the course of conversation. I spent many hours with him, studying the Serbian ballads, and I was impressed to observe that he never had to turn to the printed page. He knew them, and also other poetical texts, by heart.?

Whilst Mitrinovic continued to work in his own way for the Yugoslav cause, he was also actively seeking to re-establish contact with his continental associates of the Blut-bund and attempting to revive the impetus necessary for the publication of the proposed Yearbook. Within a few days of his arrival in England he had written to van Eeden asking “How is this whole movement of bearers of culture who are seeking tomorrow and thinking rightly to be realised?” He continued:

And so now the truth time has come, willed by God, for a union of the leaders of mankind who will give birth to the idea of the cosmogony of races and who will be the entelechy of the total Europe—those who will lay the foundations of its pan-culture. I can put myself at your disposal because, insofar as I am able to put my truth and your truths side by side and discern their similarity and identity, I feel that in meaning and essence we intend absolutely the same. Especially for a union which would take the initiative for a world-embracing union, I will gladly give all my work and struggle so far as I have the strength. I myself shall try here in England, in pursuance of my request for contribution or collaboration in the editing of the Yearbook The Aryan Europe, to discuss the idea of such a concentration and cooperation of the culture-bearers of the present-day mankind of tomorrow in a general way. And furthermore I believe that I shall write to some men on the continent about The Aryan Europe and then I could give them the feel of the suggestion for an ad hoc action... I have become devoted to you since I read three weeks ago World Conquest Through Heroic Love, a book which has shaken me and brought deep healing. Gutkind sent it to me as a momento of our meeting in Jena. I also request most urgently, if you are at all able, that you lend me or give me a copy of Sidereal Birth. I came here in a terrible hurry because I had to escape from Austrian mobilisation and have not brought my copy of Gutkind with me.!°

His offer of assistance was acknowledged by van Eeden in a letter to Henri Borel of August 31st 1914. He noted that:

The Serbian Mitrinovié is in London and has put himself at our disposal for all organisational work. He is a deserter! and therefore cannot go back to Serbia.