Politika
- Ten years ago: Kajmakčalan
- What are people saying?
- The Italian–Romanian treaty
A war correspondent recalls the mountain and the men he revisited after Kajmakčalan. A critical education column and a Rome treaty brief add domestic controversy and current diplomacy to the anniversary page.
Opening mountain memoir, language-examination column and treaty brief. One unclear weather word marked; detailed battle narrative not fully transcribed.
Translation
Ten years ago: Kajmakčalan
On 25 July 1917 I climbed Kajmakčalan again. I was accompanied by the commander of the Drina Division, Colonel Krsta Smiljanić, and his staff. All the infantry and artillery commanders who had taken part in the fighting around Kajmakčalan had also been invited...
It was the day of the patron-saint celebration, and an occasion to establish definitively the operational areas of the individual regiments and units.
It is worth mentioning in passing that, in a hollow near the summit that day, we came across [unclear] frozen snow. It was about 8 o’clock when we reached the top. A pool about the size of a woollen coat, formed by snowmelt during the day, had frozen over. At these heights the barometer fell during the night—0° R.
What are people saying?
Teachers of our national minorities are required to pass examinations in national subjects. The Ministry of Education has formed three commissions for this purpose. A member of one commission, travelling recently through Vojvodina, met a teacher with whom he could not communicate, because the teacher did not know a word of Serbian. Once an interpreter was found, he learned that the teacher had passed all the national-subject examinations, including Serbian.
We must hope that these three commissions will require new candidates to know at least a few words of our language, if they do not know our wines.
The Italian–Romanian treaty
Rome, 16 September.
During a two-hour conversation between Mr. Mussolini and General Averescu, all the points and provisions of the Italian–Romanian friendship treaty were settled. The treaty will be signed today.
Context
A battlefield revisited after the fighting
Kajmakčalan belonged to the Balkan front of the First World War. After Serbia’s defeat in 1915, Serbian forces regrouped and fought alongside other Allied armies; the mountain battle took place in September 1916. This memoir moves to a return visit in 1917, combining commemoration with the recording of unit responsibilities. Its frozen snow and pool give physical scale to the high ground on which those responsibilities had been fought out.
An examination system put to the test
The school anecdote exposes a gap between a certificate and a usable skill. The state required minority teachers to pass national-subject examinations, but the reported encounter suggests that passing Serbian did not necessarily mean being able to speak it. By directing its closing sarcasm at the commissions, the column turns a language-policy requirement into a question of administrative credibility: who was ensuring that an official qualification meant what it claimed?
Friendship expressed through a bilateral treaty
The Rome brief presents the agreement as a negotiation between the two leaders, culminating in a planned signature. A friendship treaty made the relationship a formal commitment between governments rather than a favourable exchange of statements. Its prominence on a Belgrade front page reflects the regional significance of closer Italian–Romanian relations: a neighbouring country’s diplomatic partnerships were part of the setting in which Yugoslavia conducted its own foreign affairs.
Original
Пре десет година. Кајмакчалан
Двадесет петог јула 1917 године пео сам се понова на Кајмакчалан. Био сам у друштву са Командантом Дринске Дивизије, пук. Крстом Смиљанићем и његовим штабом. Ту су били позвати и сви команданти пешадије и артиљерије — учасници борбе око Кајмакчалана...
То је био дан „крсне славе“ као и то, да се утврде дефинитивно рејони операција појединих пукова и јединица.
Од интереса је, узгред да поменем, да смо, тога дана, у једној удољици, близу врха, наишли на [нејасно] смрзнута снега. Било је око 8 часова кад смо горе изашли. Барица, у величини једног гуња, која се преко дана из снега сливала, беше смрзнута. На овим висинама барометар је преко ноћи падао — 0° R°.
Шта се говори?
Учитељи наших националних мањина дужни су да полажу испите из националних предмета. Ради тога образоване су у Министарству Просвете три комисије. Члан једне од тих комисија путујући недавно по Војводини, наишао је на једног учитеља, са којим није могао да се споразуме, јер учитељ није знао ни речи српске. Кад је нашао тумача дознао је да је тај учитељ положио све испите на националним предметима, па дакле и из српског језика.
Треба се надати да ће ове три комисије од нових кандидата тражити да знају бар неколико речи нашег језика ако не знају наших вина.
Италијанско-румунски уговор
Рим, 16 септембра.
У разговору који је трајао два сата између г. Мусолиниа и генерала Авереска утврђене су све тачке и одређења италијанско-румунског уговора о пријатељству. Уговор ће бити данас потписан.