Norwich bulletin., 1917-03-02
THE WAR PRIMER By National Geographic Society

The Proposed Union of Serbia and Montenesro-The refusal of King Nicholas of Montenegro to abdicate in favor of his grandson Prince Alexan- der of Serbia. in order that the two skingdoms may be united under a ingle crown, calls to mind the national divisions which mark racial groups es- pecIily in the Balkan States" says a bulletin issued by the National Geo. graphic Society from it's headquarters here today. It then continues:
 'sThe Serbs and the Montenegrins are of the same blood; and are the descendants of that people who, un- der their great national hero. stephen Dushan. were the dominant force in dred~ years ago. when their jurisdiction ran from the upper Balkan Mountains to the Mediterranean. The gradual de- cay of Serb power reached its nadir with the defeat of the Serbs at the famous Battle of Kossoyo; and the Serbs fled in two columns, one to the northeast and the other to the south east.
 "The former. having crossed the lirf of hills and spread into the ter ritory north of Nish and running to the Saave. were unable to fend off the Moslem pursuer; but the latter, taking to the impenetrabie hills above the Lake of Scutari. set up their na- tion under Ivan the Black and for five Nhundred years maintained them selves as the only people of the Bal kans who had never succumbed to the Turkish conqueror. Ivan's line was lost before long: and Nicholas. who now comes again to public atten- tion, is of more lowly origin and sprung from one of the VsadiiSirs. or Prince Bishops. who ruled the land with a combination of church and state which has existed nowhere else in such feudal form.
 "The Serbs lived in Turkish bondage until about a century ago. when Kar- ageorge (Black George), a swineherd, led them in instruction which result cd in partial liberty. With alternating power between the Karageorgovitch and the Obrenovitch families, Serbia persisted under nominal suzerainty of the Sultan until the Treaty of Berlin recast the boundary lines of Europe, when an Obrenovitch Prince was con- firned in Serb sovereignty: and the Karageorgovitch descendants were scattered. One of them. Peter. the Pretender to the Serb crown, took refuge in the Montenegrin capital where he married Nicholas eldest daughter. After her death, he found himself unable to live on terms of anity with his father-in-law across the tiny square at Cettigne, and he be- took himself to Paris and later to Genva, whence the assassination of 1903 brought him back to Belgrade and
 
 Tt is Peters son to whom Nicholas now refuses to give way; and in his refusal he will doubtless be sustained by such of the hardy Montenegrin mountain neers as have opportunity to voice their opinions.
 Though of the same blood. speak ing the same tongue. and owning the same religion. there could hardly be pictured two peoples who present such utterly differing physical cllaracteris- tics as the Serbs and the Montene- grins. The latter are tall and lean, muscular, commanding, moving with infinite natural grace. The former are slight in statue, nervous in tempera- ment, apparently more Gallic than Slav in all their exterpais.
 'The Montenegrin is warrior, deeming fighting to be the only fit oc- farmers and swineherds. industrious and thrifty-these descriptive terms applying of course. in the main to the period before the first of the Balkan wars. Each was a product of his en- vironrnent. The Serb, dwelling in a productive land and following peace full pursuits. became. with the cen turies. more docile and tractable; and his physique seemed to change with his character. The Montenegrin, on the other hand, living in a land of rocky harshness and wrestling a meager livelihood from tiny patches of reluctant mountain soil, retained and developed the mind and manner of his primitive and struggling ances- tors. It is a striking instance of the influence of environment upon fndi- yiduals and upon a race"