New-York tribune., 1920-01-29
Rotterdam In
With 1852 and
3 Million Gold
Liner, Delayed by Ice Floes,
Brings Three Stowaways
and Money for the Guar
anty Trust Company
Greetings of d'Annunzio
Soldier-Poet Felicitates US.
Through Vera Bloom,
Correspondent III Fiume

The Holland Anne rica line steamship
ternoon from Rotterdam, Boulogne and
Plymouth with 1852 passengers, three
stowaways and s3,0oo,0C0 in god con-
signed to the Guaranty Trust Company.
Rough weather added difficulties to
the 12-day trip. Ice fields were passed
in latitude 1858 longitude 45.39.
A delegation of Italians met the
liner and received message from
Premier Nitti of Italy and Captain
Vera Bloom, daughter Of Mr. and Mrs
Sol Bloom. Miss Bloom was the first
foreign writer to enter Fiume and in
terview d'Annunzio six weeks follow
ing his seizure Of the port. She and
her parents were d'Annunzio's guests
for ten days and reported the city re-
markably calm. Miss Bloom was deco
rated by Captain d'Annunzio with the
Star of Fiumc" and made an honorary
captain in his army. She also inter
viewed Lloyd George, Empress Eugene,
with the Pope, receiving his blessing.
81 am sure | was the first CORE
spondcnt to enter Fiume," said Miss
Bloom. "Letters from Governor A. e.
Smith and Samuel Gompers which
carried helped materially in my getting
into the city past five sentry posts. All
the other correspondents at Trieste told
me | was crazy and that the town
would be blown to pieces.
"There was never a more peaceful
place. And d'Annunzio himself was far
from mad poet. In fact. he has not
written poetry or a bit of fiction in five
years. He worked eighteen hours a day
and was as sane a man as I ever met
The people simply adored him. He un-
doubtedly saved Italy from revolution
by vocing the popular demand regard
ing Fiume. He has with him the flower
of the Italian army, including eight Of
the ten surviving soldiers who wear
what corresponds to the British Vic
toria Cross.
Italy has been maliciously libclcd
by propaganda. There is as much food
there as in England or France, and you
can hardly find bcgear in the entire
country. Miles of factories are being
erected outside of Rome. Labor unrest
takes the form Of demonstration
strikes twenty-four hours long. The
King is popular because Of his work in
Americans in the country, but feel very
bitter toward President Wilson"
The Rotterdam also brought Jonk-
heer R. de Marees Van Swinderen,
Dutch Minister to Great Britain, who
raced to this country to the bedside of
his nine-ycar- son, Rene Charles,
who is critically i'll in Washington
with spinal meningitis. By special ar
rangcment the Minister was rushed
Immediately to the Pennsylvania Sta
tion to catch train for Washington.
His wife was Miss Elizabeth Glover,
daughter of Charles c. Glover, presi-
dent of the Riggs National Bank,
Washington
Another arrival was Siegfried Sas-
soon, English soldier-poet, who came
here to lecture. Sassoon enlisted as q
private in 1914 and rose to be captain,
seeing service in France and Palestine.
He was wounded three times and re
ceived the Military Cross. He had q
controversy with the British War Of
fee in 1917 because of letter on
political subjects written to his com
manding officer.
Another arrival was Captain Gordon
Smith of the Serbian army, a Scotch
man attached to the Serbian legation
at Washington. Captain Gordon Smith
was at one time correspondent for The
New York Tribune, "New York Hcrald'
and other papers in Paris, Berlin, Lon
don and the East. In 1915 he tramped
in 1917 received permission from Con-
grcss to raise a Serbian army in this
country He said yesterday that
Serbia would be on its feet in two
years because of its enormous natural
wealth, which includes 100000 square
miles Of timber and large quantities of
mineral wealth.