Serbia in Light and Darkness | Page 2

work and of what an immortal glory this
place has been the home. I dreamed a beautiful dream of hope to come
here silently, to let every man, every house and every brick of the
houses silently teach me, and, after having learned many fair and useful
things, to return silently and thankfully home. Unfortunately I cannot
now be a silent and contemplative pupil in this place, as I desired to be,
but I must speak, forced by the time in which we are living and
suffering. I will speak in order not to teach you, but to thank you. And I
have to thank you much in the name of the Serbian nation and in my
own name.
I thank you that you are so mindful of Serbia, of a poor and suffering
country that failed so much in many respects, but never failed in
admiration of the English character and civilisation. From central

European civilisation we received a small light and a great shadow.
From English civilisation we got--I dare say it--the light only. There is
no doubt that English civilisation, being a great light, must have its
shadow also, but our eyes, blinded by the great light, did not see the
dark side of this light.
I thank you that you gave us Shakespeare, who is the second Bible for
the world; and Milton the divine, and Newton and Herschel, the friends
of the stars; and Wellington and Nelson, the fearless conquerors of the
ambitious tyrant of the world; and Stephenson, the great inventor of the
railway and the great annihilator of distance between man and man; and
Carlyle, the enthusiastic apostle of work and hope; and Dickens, the
advocate of the humble and poor; and Darwin, the ingenious revealer of
brotherly unity of man and nature; and Ruskin, the splendid interpreter
of beauty and truth; and Gladstone, the most accomplished type of a
humane statesman; and Bishop Westcott and Cardinal Newman, the
illuminated brains and warm hearts. No, I never will finish if I
undertake to enumerate all the illustrious names which are known in
Serbia as well as in England, and which would be preserved in their
integrity in Serbia even if this island should sink under the waters.
I have to thank you for many sacrifices that the people of this country
have made for Serbia during the present world-struggle. Many of the
English nurses and doctors died in Serbia in trying courageously to
save Serbian lives in the time of typhus-devastation. They lost their
own lives saving ours, and I hope in losing their lives for their suffering
neighbours they have found better ones. Their work will never be
forgotten and their tombs will be respected as relics among us Serbs.
Besides, Great Britain also sent military help for Serbia. It was dictated
to Great Britain by the highest strategic reasons to send troops to Serbia,
to the Danube, in order to stop the Germans there, to hinder their
junction with the Bulgars, to annihilate all their plans and dreams
regarding the East, to defend Serbia not only as Serbia, but as the gate
of Egypt and India, and so to protect in the proper place and in the most
efficacious manner her oriental Dominions. But seemingly England
sent her troops to Serbia more to protect her honour than her
Dominions, more to help Serbia than to defend Egypt and India. The

number of these troops and the time when they arrived in Serbia
indicate that. Hundreds of miles the Serbs had been driven back by the
enemy before the British forces reached the Serbo-Greek frontier. But
still they reached the Serbian land, they fought on Serbian soil and shed
their noble blood defending that soil. Serbia will rather forget herself
than the English lives sacrificed for her in such a catastrophic moment
of her history.
England is THE GREATEST EMPIRE OF THE WORLD, not only at
the present time, but since the beginning of human history. Neither the
artificial combination of Alexander of Macedonia nor the ancient
Roman Empire, neither Spain of Charles V. nor Napoleon's ephemeral
dominion were nearly so great as the British Empire of to-day. Never
has a nation possessed so much sea and so much land as the British.
This wonderful Empire includes people of every race, countries of
every climate, human societies of every degree of civilisation, almost
all kinds of minerals, plants and animals, lakes and rivers, mountains
and forests. The most ancient civilisations of Egypt, India and the
Mediterranean Islands are brought together in conjunction under the
same rule as the new worlds, like South Africa, Canada and Australasia.
The communication between the zones of the everlasting snow and
those of the everlasting hot sun is established in perfection. The
countries and peoples which were for thousands