Jugoslovenski Rotar

WHATI KNOW ABOUT YUGOSLAVIA

Srećni smo da mozgemo objaviti €lanak, od veoma poStovanog engleskog rotara Bler-Fiša, napisan specijalno za naš list.

Betore I had been for some time an official of Rotary I suppose ,, Yugoslavia” expressed to me only a very little more than it expresses io the majority of ignorant Englishmen. (There are, of course, only a sprinkling of English people who are not „ignorant” ; possibly of Yougoslavians too? — and of other peoples?). I knew that it was officially the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, grown out of what we all called ,,gallant little Serbia’; that its capital was Beograd (positively not Beligrade), but that, because of a certain terribly historic occurrence which I first saw flaring across the headline of an Italian newspaper one summer day in a train between Pisa and Genoa, its most memorable town to us must ever be Sarajevo; that it owned. the enchanted seaboard and islands of Dalmatia, which I had always longed to visit (and have never visited yet); that the greatest (but only) Yugoslavian whose name I knew was Me%trovic; that parts of it were still more traditionally Turkish than: even the Asiatic parts of the new Turkey; and that it was all very wild and unruly very ,,Balkan”, in fact — and on musteriosly bad terms with Italy.

Now that I have said all that I am almost proudly conscious that it is probably quite a good deal more than the average Englishman knows. I am sorry. I am not really insulting Yugoslavia: I am trying to insult the average Englishman.

But what difference has being a Rotarian made to my knowledge of Yugoslavia? (Before, I had seen no more of it than a few pleasant glimpses on my way through to the Black Sea by train; and I have never seen it since. Before, I had never even: met one Yugoslavian; and, as I have shown, I hardly knew the name of one. The only difference seems to be that I know now — and am very proud to know — that that ene, MeStrovic of Zagreb, — is a Rotarian; and I have met just one or two: Markovic, for instance, and my friend, Stojadinovi¢. Somehow, it seems to me that it is sufficient to know one representative of a country to know something of his country too. And if you know a man as a friend — if, that is to say, you keep him warmly in your heart — you must feel friendlily towards his country. He has made it mean something to you, and mean something made in his own image.

I do not need to enlarge upon, the obvious thought that this is one of the ways: in which, in every country, Rotary, through its good Rotarians may claim to be serving the world... slowly, and by tiniest degrees, and yet, perhaps, appreciably . . And further, that the advent of Yugoslavia’s own district magazine marks a step: forward upon this same way.

A little story to conclude. — When I paid my first visit to Chicago, they took me out to see the sights, and they asked me what I would, like to see. — ,,Show me, please”, I said, ,,MeStrovic’s Indians”. They looked blank. They did not seem to have heard of them. (Again I say, I am not insulting MeStrovic, I hope, but only Chicago!) Enquiries were made, and my guide did his best. But he could not find them. At last he put me down at my hotel, right opposite to Grant Park, and — ,,Why, there they are!’ I said. So I put two of the glories of Chicago — and of Yugoslavia — on the ‘Rotary map of Chicago. The very next year was the year of the Chicago Convention —- and they did not forget to send out photos of the Mestrovic Indians with all the other publicity, photos to the editors of Rotary journals. I hope they show them now to all their visitors. W. W. BLAIR-FISH,

огбат= те зесгејагу Р. 1. В. 1., едНог Зегигсе т Гоје and Work and The Rotary Wheel.

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