Knowledge without frontiers Knowledge Without Frontiers | Page 34

Anton Kuhelj, approx. 1950. Digital Library of Slovenia.
Anton Moljk. Jožef Stefan Institute.
"Three university oafs"
The situation after the war is beautifully il-
lustrated by the story of the “three university
oafs”, as Peterlin himself called it. Three univer-
sity professors, all of them called Anton (Peter-
lin, Kuhelj, and Moljk) were sent off to Italy with
suitcases full of money provided by the politi-
cian Boris Kidrič to buy research equipment. The
expedition would turn into a nightmare, for the
professors were intercepted by the carabinieri,
“Peterlin was a strict guardian of the Slove-
who confiscated three million liras from them nian language. We were more concerned about
matic intervention was needed to get them out scientifically accurate language. You could de-
and imprisoned them for several months. Diplo-
of prison, but the efforts to get the money back
lasted six years. In the end, only half a million
liras was returned.
34
GUARDIAN
OF THE LANGUAGE
speaking proper Slovenian than we were about
bate science with him, but you were ill advised
to debate the Slovenian language.” (Peter Go-
sar, Peterlin’s student)