An Observer in the Near East

by William Le Queux

In Sarayevo one half of the population is paid to spy upon the other half. Ask any man in Bosnia or in Herzegovina his opinion of his neighbour, and he will tell you to beware of him, as “he is a spy, and will denounce you to the authorities.” Ask the accused about his accuser, and he will tell you exactly the same thing. The whole place simply swarms with secret agents. In the country, peasants are given cows in payment for information about their neighbours, which is, of course, very often false. Stories are manufactured for the sake of reward. Expense is nothing. Agents follow you everywhere—in the town, in the country, and even beyond the frontier.

Oh yes! Bosnia, with all her natural beauties of scenery, is a truly delightful place under the present régime. The Government have their spies in private houses in the guise of domestics—for, by preference, they employ women and priests. Every pavement in the towns carries a spy, therefore silence here is certainly golden. The spy system is more complete and elaborate than either in Russia or in France, and a good deal more costly—all energies being devoted against the unfortunate Serbs.

In such an oppressed and persecuted country it goes without saying that the stranger is well looked after. From the moment I crossed the frontier of Herzegovina, to the moment I left Slavonia at Zimony, I was never lost sight of. Perhaps because I was known to be the bearer of Government despatches, I was suspected of being a British agent in disguise. My passport was never asked for until I desired to leave Austrian territory and cross the Save to Belgrade, yet with the marvellous secret system I was, while in Bosnia, a marked man. Each time I strolled in the streets of Mostar or of Sarayevo, a spy dogged my footsteps—sometimes a man, sometimes a woman—and my every movement was carefully noted.

A gentleman, apparently staying in the hotel and speaking excellent French, volunteered to be my guide about Sarayevo. He was a pleasant, nonchalant fellow, and represented himself to be a commercial traveller. I accepted his kind offices, well knowing him to be a spy, and was rather amused at the idea of the authorities providing me gratuitously with such an excellent cicerone. Wherever I went, so also did he. By all kinds of clever ruses he endeavoured to discover the reason of my visit; and I, in order to aggravate him, managed to elude his questions and so increase his suspicions. In my travels in various out-of-the-world corners of the Continent I have had a wide experience of spies and their ways, therefore I set myself to puzzle my inquisitive friend by adopting the self-same methods as he himself was adopting.

This continued for a couple of days, when he gave me up and disappeared. After that I was watched by two agents, who kept me always under close surveillance. I was more amused than annoyed, yet I confess I entertained constant anxiety regarding the confidential despatches that were in my possession, to be handed over to the King’s Messenger on his way from Constantinople to London at the earliest moment.

The traveller can only reach Sarayevo from three points: from the north from Bosnche-Brod or Banja-Louka, and from the south by Metkovitch. The local authorities of these three places know each traveller who passes, and to the stranger’s compartment there enters a pleasant person of engaging manner, who becomes his fellow-traveller, whiles away the tedious hours, explains the objects of interest along the route, and at the same time discovers a good deal about the new-comer. The secret agent will discourse upon the peace of the country, the prosperity of the people, the impartiality of the administration, and the rapid strides of progress being made on every hand. Meanwhile, news of the stranger has been telegraphed to Sarayevo, and when the polite traveller has parted from the stranger, the latter at once falls under a strict surveillance, of which he never dreams.

Should you let drop the remark that you have come to Bosnia to study the conditions of the country, then the attention paid to you will be prodigious. Kind friends, overflowing with information, will be your guides everywhere: they will conduct you to visit the authorities; they will pay for your cabs, give you luncheons at restaurants, and accompany you of an evening even to the door of your bedroom, until you will think the country a veritable El Dorado. Strangers who come to study are, of course, dangerous to the Administration, and therefore are carefully watched, and treated with unsurpassing generosity. Spies surround him, and the people, knowing those spies by sight, fear to approach him. In some cases a peasant or a citizen has approached a stranger and told him some plain truths—the truths I have learnt and written in these pages—and for doing so has invariably been sent to prison. These lessons have borne fruit, for nowadays nothing in the world will induce the Bosnian peasant to talk to a stranger. He is far too afraid.

If any serious criticism of Bosnian administration is published abroad, the authorities always seek to immediately purchase and suppress it, and many are the sums yearly paid in blackmail to unscrupulous writers who, knowing the truth, threaten to make exposure. I will give a case in point. Not very long ago there was in Prague published a brochure severely criticising the Bosnian policy, giving a description of the maladministration, and pointing out the disastrous state of the finances. A copy of this fell into the hands of M. Stakievitch, late director of the administration of the Bosnian local Government, and at that moment en congé. He at once apprised the local Government, who immediately sent Dr. Berx to Prague, with orders to suppress the publication of the book at all costs. The Government, after some brief negotiations, paid the sum of 100,000 florins (200,000 fcs.) for the destruction of the book and the silence of its author upon the state of Bosnian finance!

Then on the return of Dr. Berx no fewer than forty functionaries were arrested on charges of having given information to the author. Is not this sufficiently significant? Every newspaper in Bosnia and Herzegovina is well subsidised, and in return is compelled to chant the praises of the administration of the local Government, while all correspondents of foreign journals are equally the recipient of money from the State. In Bosnia the foreign newspaper correspondent lives well and grows fat.

Thus does Austria throw dust in the eyes of Europe.