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

56 LIFE AND IDEAS OF MITRINOVIC

by Pepler to visit the growing craft colony and on her first visit she was accompanied by her husband. He was, by early 1918, entertaining thoughts of working on the land. He had resigned from the Red Cross and had become eligible for conscription. Farm work might be one way of avoiding this. Helen Soden, on Mitrinovic’s advice, had moved to a south coast resort for the duration of the war and so it seemed that there was little Mairet could do to further Mitrinovi¢c’s work in London while the war lasted.

Encouraged by Mitrinovic, Mairet settled in Ditchling. Working as a labourer on Douglas Pepler’s farm, he continued his studies, discussing his ideas, and those of Solovyov in particular, with Eric Gill. The sculptor, who was at that time working on the great stone Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral, was a recent convert to Roman Catholicism and remained unreceptive. Edward Johnston, however, was greatly impressed by Mitrinovic. Johnston had come across him standing by a cow-byre on the farm where Philip Mairet was working. Thinking the stranger was lost Johnston asked him if he needed directions. “No,” he replied, “I am only looking how noble an animal is the cow.” Johnston, recalling the incident with Mairet, observed “And you know, the way he looked and the way he said it, made me think, yes, yes and how noble a human being it is that is now talking to me.”

In London Mitrinovié continued with his work as cultural propagandist for the Yugoslav cause. With Nikolaj Velimirovic he had planned a series of books under the general title of The World of the Slav. Amongst the proposed titles were The Humanism of the Slavs and Dostoyevsky as the Prophet of Slavdom by Velimirović, and The Teachings of the Prophets: the Christian Thought of Tolstoy by Mitrinovic, and an edition of Solovyov’s Foundations of Christology. Nothing came of this scheme, but by 1917 he was working with Velimirovic.and Niko Zupani¢ on the preparation of the monograph The South Slav Monuments which was eventually published in 1918. Early in 1918 he resumed his friendship with Dušan Popović, secretary of the Serbian Social Democratic Party in exile who arrived in London from Stockholm. Together they planned a book on Marxism and its relevance to the Serbian people to commemorate the centenary of Marx’s birth. Popovié was to write something on Marx and Serbia, whilst Mitrinovic was to contribute an article on “Marx as an Internationalist.” It seemed that Mitrinovi¢ was beginning to take a more active part in political emigre circles with the arrival of his friend. In the spring of 1918 he was persuaded by Popovié to deliver a lecture on Marx to the club of the Serbian Social Democrats in London. All this was brought to an end, however, by the untimely death of his friend on November 8th, 1918 after an operation.