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

THE EXILE 43

in the office at the Legation; however I realised that I am not suited for that work. Secondly my faith in the yearbook has revived, and I hope it will be possible to gather friends together; and | am unshakably convinced that, besides the fact that it is categorically necessary to enlighten public political thinking in Europe and America about Serbia and the brotherhood with the Croats and the Slovenes, it is necessary to gain the respect of Europe, and of humanity in general, for the cultural works which Yugoslavia has already achieved: for the national art, literary, musical and textile; for works of artistic literature and for scientific work worthy of general recognition: for Mestrovi¢ and brilliant works of art among the Slovenes and the Croats. It is necessary to advise the wide world of the high moral value of the Serbian peasant, not only when he is putting up a superhuman fight for his life; and of the human content and greatness of Yugoslav history. At this moment it is not opportune and it is not possible to begin such propaganda in England not even in Europe generally; in America humanity is not being crushed and is calm. The future peace will be not a congress of diplomats but the pan-human parliament of nations; America will, with its idea and plan for Peace, be one of the decisive factors in the Peace and therefore it is necessary to represent the just rights of Serbia there: in general Slavdom needs to enlighten people in America about itself.

While he was waiting to hear the response of the Foreign Minister to his suggestion, Mitrinovic busied himself working for the Yugoslav cause in Britain. In 1915 the Croatian poet Tucié edited a book in the Daily Telegraph “War Library” series entitled The Slav Nations. For this Mitrinovi¢ prepared an article, “Buried Treasure,” in which he reviewed the historic mission of Serbia and the Serbo-Croat people as “a bulwark for Europe and Christianity against the invasion of Turkish barbarians and Islam.”4 He went on to proclaim the birth of a new age of Southern Slay history and culture, the central event of which process being the emergence of “the artist-prophet Ivan Mestrovié.”5 For Mitrinovié Mestrovic’s “Temple of Kossovo” was symbolic of the dawn of the new age of universal humanity in general, and of the development of Southern Slay political and cultural unity, under the influence of Serbia, in particular.

In 1915 an exhibition of Mestrovié’s sculptures and models was held in one of the large halls of the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington. Mitrinovié was closely involved with the organisation of the exhibition and in lecturing to visitors. A sense of the significance he attributed to Mestrovi¢’s work is given by the report of a lecture he gave on Mestrovi¢’s behalf at the University of Leeds on October Sth. Described by the ViceChancellor Michael Sadler as possessing “a wonderful command of the English language,” Mitrinovi¢ proclaimed in the course of his presentation: