Confidential message to King Petar Karađorđević on the need to establish a brotherly cooperation between the two countries
My dear Pera, [tran. note: Pera is a nickname for Petar in the region]
For some time the Serbian papers report often and such news that one could conclude that the two independent Serbian countries and the two Serbian ruling houses are not in unity. This has been accepted by the foreign newspapers hostile to us and amplified with a transparent intention. In this way an increased belief is being created that there is something there or that it was especially created, which has come before the union of the two Serbian states and their representatives.
My soul, dear Pera, feels a heavy pain because of this. I am disagreeably touched that there is more and more written and spoken about the discord between you and us and a misunderstanding and some kind of a coldness between you and me. I can imagine how much sorrow is felt by our tribe because of this and especially all of those who look up to us. It lies heavily on my soul and griefs me when something could be (tho)ught and let alone in so man*… Serbian and foreign papers of (pu)blic opinion written that the two Serbian states and their chiefs are not unanimous and have the best of feelings for one another, especially today when they are called to muster all their strength for … damage (permanently) …. would be achieved … aims for. I am sorry and because I know and I am aware that as far as I am concerned there is no basis and reason to these persistent rumours about a discord.. I am sorry and so are all Montenegrins, who are of a single mind and heart with me in this as in all other matters.
The pain, caused to my soul by these writings and rumours, has been amplified by the thought that the Serbian people could soon come to the conviction that there is some truth to it…. would be very damaging; this could yet still make our people’s patriots worried whose hopes could languish and would not rush to dispel the acquired convictions that there is some.thing, which troubles the unity between the two Serbian lands and the confidence between their two rulers. Only in this union and confidence can Serbdom see the guarantee of a brighter future. If anyone is called to to give everything possible to give our people a visible proof that this union, as the pillar of the national hopes is not only…. of its intensity, but that… most permanent in a time when on the throne of Serbia is the grandson of the hero from Topola, while on the throne of Montenegro is the great-grandson of Danilo, the founder of Montenegrin freedom and St Petar of Cetinje, the collaborator of Karađorđe, it is you and I, my dear Pera. I am assured that the feelings of your Serbian soul are the same as mine and for the same reasons… and otherwise feel the grandson… immortal who in the words of my famous predecessor “lifted the people up, christened the land and barbarian foreigners brought down, brought Serbs back from the dead – breathed a life into the Serbian soul.”
When we have the same feelings for the general good of Serbs and the equal wishes for the realisation of national ideals, it will be easy, my dear Pera, to find a suitable way to do something as soon as possible and to root out even the smallest reason to believe that between the Serbian states and their ruling houses there is no unity, love and trust. You and I are duty-bound to do this first and jointly, because we are the first ones called to do so. A visible proof which we would give to the world would pull out from the souls of Serbs the dark premonitions which have grown in them due to the often and repeated rumours about a disunity and even some sort of a conspiratorial work of one brotherly side against the other, so much so that those rumours are now impossible to be denied with words and statements alone.
On my side there are no obstacles nor ill will, but only love for an agreement and harmonious labour for the good of Serbs overall, in what I am aided by the whole of Montenegro, which was always ready together with me to bear the greatest of sacrifices for this exalted goal. On your side there are also no obstacles, as you are saturated with the same feelings and enamoured with love towards Serbdom and aided in actions of general good by your good people and I am therefore assured that you will be gladdened by this thought of mine and choose such a path, by which we could both easily come to its realisation. In the hands of the ones not called upon or indifferent who perhaps could not correctly understand all the energy of the expression of these feelings for the general good, this letter of mine would look like the fruit of some sort of fear of an attack on myself, which would have come from the misunderstanding, blindness and mostly from the heads of youngsters. But you, my dear Pera, know that this is not so; you know that I, as the folk singers say, often since my youth “stood in a terrible place” only for the good of the people. And that is why, I ask of you, to accept the thought, expressed in this letter of mine, only for the sake of Serbdom, because as far as I am concerned, it does not matter to me whether I will die on Kosovo or from a bomb in a street for the general good of Serbs, as I find it deadlier and more terrible that Serbdom started getting increasingly convinced – aided handily by our enemies – that you and I, your and mine, your country and mine are not together in the labour for the general Serbian good you will not be bothered that from your side you give a proof of it to the contrary by example, in which I would participate as well and by which we will gladden the whole of Serbian people. Serbia and Montenegro, Serbdom overall, even Russia itself, our protector, ask us to do this as soon as possible. We will sin before God and our national shrines and the shades (of so many) martyrs of Serbian national thought if… take care, since we are both… d, leave our lands and our… in uncertainty. We should not hold back from any sacrifices, nor hide away from any obstacles, if those, even if we are both constitutional rulers, come to sacrificing governments for this goal and in overcoming various other obstacles, which constitutional obligations might put before us. When it comes to general Serbian interests such sacrificecs would be justified and approved by our patriotic subjects and blessed by Serbdom.
I could have sent you as the bearer of this letter one of my vojvodas and dignitaries, but I d.o not do that, as I am of the opinion that for such a holy Serbian matter the most suitable intermediary between me and you is the highly reverend Metropolitan Mitrofan Ban, patriotic and an old fighter for the the freedom of our people, whose role in this patriotic labour should be the mirror of the role of St Sava and his heirs in similar labours.
Cetinje, 1907.
*The text has been damaged in several places due to the paper rotting.
Translated by Books of Jeremiah
