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Show W KEEP HOLD 01 M0NTENE9RQ Serbs Reluctant to Yield Possession of Little . Mountain State, By THOMAS STUART RYAN. (Chicago Tribune Cable, Copyright.) CETTINJB. May 2, via Paris, May 17 Allied troops are remaining In Montenegro. Monte-negro. Surprise T'as expressed by tho Serbs when they, like the Italians, were ordered to leave the country, since Serbia declares Montenegro part and parcel of herself. ! General Tahon, a Frenchman, commanding command-ing Bocche di Cattaro, transmitted tho order, but It originated with no less a personage than General Franz d'Esperey, commander-in-chief of tho allied army of the east. Three times did the French deliver tho order, and three times did General M. M. Milhallovich, commanding the Serb dlvl-! dlvl-! slon at Zeta, In Montenegro, decline to ! move. His chiff, he said, was not the 1 allied generalissimo, but his superior In i Sarajevo. He acquainted the latter with I what had happened. Later Belgrade was ' informed, but no reply came from the government, and Genera Milhallovich sat tight. The plan. 1t was said, was tirj?t to remove re-move the aiiied troops, ihen, by a plebiscite, plebis-cite, to feel the national pulse on the question of a Serbian union. With tho Serb army present it was felt this could not be done, and Genera Tahon ceased to command In Montenegro, since, theoretically, theo-retically, there would be no troops to command. But he faced the stone wall of th Serbian refusal; at, the F-a.me time the Italians declined to leave whiie their r:v:ihs f-maiii'-d. General d'Ksrr':' then r"tM"ccd his t;ictlc! by placing General Tfthon oivc irorr in fmmai") of Mntnf gro, ,csid-? BO'-hc di Cai'ro. ThN ln a nn hot h B a)1 a ns p rd ST'r.s will fx 7t y th'y are io aw." it thfi lat word frr.m Paris. Th Serbian gtnprat viewpoint may ; be undp-rM'od. Ontario Montf-neero, : around Bocho di '"'attaro, thre an- 2o'"0 Italian troops, wi:iio within the roun try or.e battaiion Is stationed at Ant ivari, 1 Monteneero'b bL port, an-! coir. pij n ." s are ;;it ho'h Owl' iz-io and Yirnaznr, nstni-' nstni-' blv, ily Mr" ttire to prfitt:t Italian rari- I ta ; in c-;i ed i : t i it Lie rai ! way f ro?n An".- n.ri to ",'i"i;;7.ar. "W'f Cr.v'n rj- tl'-'n r;t and MeT (Continued on Page 2, Column 1.) WOULD KEEP HOLD OH MOiTEffflO (Continued from Page One.) them out," said General Milhailovlch, clicking his spurs on the hardwood floor of the old Austrian legation and twirling a mustache strangely reminiscent of those that once grew on the banks of the Spree, "but we will trust the entente to force their removal." He has under him one division of Serbian Ser-bian infantry, three Montenegrin battalions battal-ions and some mounted batteries. Besides Be-sides these troops, there is a part of the Kossovo division in the northeast. Governor Gov-ernor Pavichevich or, as he likes to be called, Mlnistre Delegue du Royaume des Serbs, Croates et Slovenes thought d'ls-perey's d'ls-perey's order must be a mistake. "Why, the Serbs are at home here," the governor said. "I can understand putting put-ting the Italians out. But, to take an analogous case, if the Americans were ordered by General Pershing to quit Prance, would the French troops be forced to leave with them? This is Serbian soil. 1'ou might as well ask us to leave Belgrade." Bel-grade." M. Pavichevich added that the order might be due to Italian influence, but not exactly to Nicholas's Intrigues. He did not consider the old king's return an imminent peril, but if it should occur it would cause a civil war, the bloodiest the Balkans ever have witnessed. "For the Serbs of Montenegro" that is the way they say Montenegro these days "the Serbs of Montenegro would never suffer such a return to the middle ages. We have done with hand-kissing and 'gospodara' and the system that studied to keep the people in ignorance lest through the schools they should learn independence." |