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

Chapter 3

THE EXILE

Mitrinovié arrived in London in early August 1914 armed only with an address in Golders Green given to him by his English teacher in Munich, a Miss Sanderson. He presented himself at the Serbian Legation from where, on August 15th, a telegram was sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Nis enquiring whether they might appoint Dimitrije Mitrinovic, who was in London without work and without means, to a position within the Legation. A further despatch of August 29th, stressed the importance of Mitrinovic’s knowledge of the Yugoslav question, and on September 14th, arrangements were made for his appointment as a clerk at the salary of 150 dinars a month. This was an unlikely position for one who had spent much of the previous decade as a political organiser and propagandist and he did not remain deskbound for long. Mitrinovi¢ shared the view that the war would not last long and that by the summer of 1915 he would be able to resume his roving commission on behalf of the Blut-bund. Within a few months he was writing to the Serbian Prime Minister, Nikola Pasi¢, offering his services as a propagandist for the Yugoslav ideal. In the letter of early November 1914 he explained:

Be so kind as to forgive me for troubling you with this letter, since I have realised that I am not suited to office work I have had to resign the charge with which you and Monsieur the Minister have favoured me. I take the liberty of informing you personally why I have ceased working at the Legation so that my action may be rightly understood. In the meantime I hold that my national duty and my great obligation to the government of Serbia, which for years has assisted my education, will be best served if I devote myself to the propaganda of Yugoslav cultural and political thought among the peoples who may best be of assistance to Serbia and to Yugoslavia.!

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