The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-06-28
SERBIA PEACEFULLY INVADED.
Germans and Austrians Are Already
Making Inroads.

Belgrade, June 24.-The German and
Austrian peaceful infiltration of Serbia
has begun. The hotels of this city har
Dor guests whose identity is revealed
by their heavy Teutonic cast of features.
They talk in German and laugh loudly
over their beer Indeed if one does not
speak German in Belgrade one sometimes
finds himself misunderstood. The wait
ers do not know English or French in the
majority Of cases.
MY friends in Basic told me I would
be mobbed in Belgrade if | spoke Ger
man there" declared self styled sales
man. However, l found that when
spoke Italian | was treated with disre
spect, that when ] spoke French ! was
ignored and that when ! spoke English
was smilingly but politely told, in Ger
man, that | could be best served by
speaking the tongue / know best"
Serbia from one end of the country to
the other has been flooded with cheap
Austrian and German goods How they
got in one cannot learn but every shop
window in the village from Uskub to
Semendria contains cheap mirrors, toll
ct articles, knixes and gimcraeks of ev-
cry description Made in Austria" Many
Of the articles are backed with coored
pictures under celuloid of the former
Austrian and German emperors in all
their regalia. There seems to be little
prejudice against German and Austrian
goods among the peasants and village
jewellers of Serbia.
The Serbian hates the Bulgarian as
yenomously as ever, but he does not sing
a morning hymn of hate against Ger
many or Austria. The country is fiocked
with pictures of atrocities committed by
Bulgarians upon Serbians The former
Emperor Charles picture still adorns the
local police headquarters.
In Belgrade there is bitterness against
the Austrians, especially among the bet
ter class of people whose homes were
Systematically despoiled by Austrian of
ficers who shipped sixty trains of house
hold goods from Belgrade across the
Danube into Austria Each train was
composed of approximately thirty cars.
Three hundred pianos were included in
the loot Belgrade and northern Serbia
are flooded with the deprecated Aus
trian currency, in fact there apparently
10 iuoIe huSJildh lduHcy III ciCuihllOn
than Serbian
The American Red Cross employs a
number of German prisoners in trans
porting its supplies. They are better
clothed than many Serb soldiers and go
about the streets laughing and joking
and in general quite at home.
The American Red Cross has for its
warehouse the Palace hotel, which, Just
finished before the war, was intended to
be the best hotel in Belgrade. When the
Austrians entered the town, however,
they deliberately smashed the plateglass
mirrors, marble wainscoting and stabbed
their horses in the drawing room and
dining saloon. The woodwork was torn
out for firewood and the mahogany fur
niture wantonly hacked with axes.
Major G. Fl. Edwards of Orlando, Fla,
who has been in charge of the American
Red Cross work in northern Serbia, dis
tributed help to local orphanages and
hospitals, started workrooms for needy
women, gave out supplies to hospitals
and has equipped medical stats which
travel through northern Serbia.