The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1918-09-10

mentO, the nttle Capitdi VI Sdiiiof-
mia, there Is Jugo-Slav "Sokol,"
or athletic-literary society. which.
before the United States declared
war against Germany. had % active
members. 1t now has four. All the
rest are volunteer fighters for the
allies along the mountain crest Of
the Balkan peninsula.
.nis Macedonian battlefront,
quiescent so long after the immo-
lation Of Serbia, seems about to
thrust itself once more before the
eyes of the world. Already the
Italians and French have routed the
enemy in Albania, the British have
struck in the valley of the Struma,
farther east toward Kavala the
Greeks have been winning their vic
tories, while in the center the
French, along the Vardar and the
Cerna, and the Serbs beyond Mon
astir are holding the body of the
Bulgarians in bloody play until the
final hour ripens. With the Serbian
army under Crown Prince AleXan-
der there is complete division of
Jugo-Slavs-some $4,000 men sew
eral thousand of whom made their
way back to this ancient fighting
ground from the United States.
Remember that these are Austrian
subjects. Serbs. Croats, Solvenas-
they we're all born beneath the yoke
of the Dual Monarchy and it is just
that yoke they are fighting to throw
off forever. Should they be captur-
ed they will probably be hanged, il
precedent means anything in Aus
tria. And yet they turn to Serbia
with that same longing for a free
union which all Italians once felt
for Piedmont.
There Is no route from Jugo-
Slavia to the Macedonian front.
Serbia and all the great stretches OF
southern Austria and Hungary in
habited by the South-Slays is in the
iron grip OF the enemy. 1t is i'm
possible to reach the lines of the
allies. How then do 10000 Jugo-
/ Slavs come to be fighting in the
ranks OF the allies in Macedonia?
a: g. That is one of the strangest won
sgaer-stories of the present war.
= When Austria, acting as Ger.
smany's catspaw, brought on the
great struggle she depended greatly
upon the Slavic elements in her ar
my, both Czech-Slovaks and Jugo.
Slavs. They were sturdy people and
Aall histofy had proved them good
. Fighters. But a single year of war
flare showed that Austria could no
!. .longer use them. The story Of the
1 Czecho-Slovaks, or Bohemians, is
| (lwell known. Everybody has heard
how they surrendered to the Rus
slams in great masses.
What happened among the Jugo-
Slavs is not so we'll known. At first
Austria tried to fling them against
Serbia in a fractricidal war, which,
just because blood brother was nit
ted against blood brother. failed dis
astrously, with losses OF some TO-
900. Then the Jugo-Slavs were
turned against the Russian front II
is said that fully 100000 OF them
went over to the Russians. The
22nd regiment Of infantry, con
stantly reconstructed by the Aus
trians, surrendered three times. 1t
was found that the only front on
which the Jugo-Slavs proved de-
pendable was along the Italian bat
tie line. Up to within year Ital-
ian pretensions to the Dalmatian
'rcoast have kept up an enmity be-
tween the two peoples which Austria
was shrewd enough TO make use or
Now. however, that Italy has given
up these pretensions there is a Jugo-
Slav unit with the Italian armies
along the Piave, completely equip
ped and drilled and ready to face
= service in the shell craters against
the common enemy.
But it was in Russia that the
greatest body Of Jugo-Slav voluntary
prisoners were gathered. Even un
der the Cars regime their reorgan-
ization as part of Russia's fighting
forces was begun. They were con
centrated near Odessa and their pa.
triotic. officers worked among them
to such.effect that an entire divis.
iii of ifghtins men was organized
Hill st foreign unit to fight un-