Freedom Takes A Bastion

Freedom Takes a Bastion

On the night of March 26, 1941, most of the Western World went to bed in fear. The hungry, conquered people of Europe slept sluggishly, despairing of deliverance. In the countries which conquest had not yet reached they slept fitfully, aware even in sleep that a blow might fall before morning. The conquerors, too, knew fear, for fear had conquered them first and turned them into conquerors. Across the ocean in the Americas, people who were still free had begun to feel a strange new force coming nearer--a force that seemed irresistible, that turned courage into fear.

Little had happened, up to the night of March 26, to dissipate this fear. It had grown with each day's events. That very day Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka had arrived in Berlin, to be greeted by the envoys of all the little countries which had succumbed to the Fascist Alliance--the latest of them Yugoslavia. Though Great Britain had dared to send a big expeditionary force to the Balkans, that night the Balkans seemed lost with the capitulation of Yugoslavia.

Though the U. S. had passed the Lend-Lease Act only 15 days before, the promise of all the aid the U. S. could muster had not been enough to hold Yugoslavia as a bastion for freedom. Or had it? In Belgrade a clock struck midnight.

The Soldiers. At 1 o'clock in the morning of March 27, 1941, a little-known correspondent for the New York Times, Ray Brock, was sitting in a cafe in a suburb of Belgrade. Correspondent Brock had filed a story about the night's demonstrations against Premier Dragisha Cvetkovitch's Government, which the police had broken up, and was having a drink before going home to bed. A Montenegrin he knew came up and whispered in his ear. Correspondent Brock dived for the door.

He found a taxicab and ordered the driver to go to the Hotel Majestic. Five times on the way the driver had to detour around tanks, anti-aircraft and anti-tank units. The driver kept muttering: "Against the people! Against the people!" He thought the tanks and the guns and the soldiers were there to suppress demonstrations against the Axis. Correspondent Brock thought so too.

At the Majestic, Brock found an Air Corps captain in charge. The captain let Brock use the telephone and Brock was trying to get the British Legation when the telephone went dead. That was at 2:51 a.m.

Cars kept coming up and driving away. Correspondent Brock kept asking questions. At first the Air Corps captain only shook his head and smiled. But after a while he strolled over to a dark corner and accepted a cigaret. "Merci," he said. Then: "You know? The little one. . . ."

Brock caught on. "Peter? The young King?"

The officer smiled.

"And all the uniforms? It's Simovitch?"

This time the officer nodded and laughed. Then he walked away, humming Oj Srbjo.

The Putsch. At 1 o'clock that morning grey-green tanks had begun lumbering through the streets of Belgrade, going slowly so as to make as little noise as possible. Behind them were the anti-tank and anti-aircraft units and machine-gun crews. Along the roads leading from the city and at every strategic spot in Belgrade the tanks and guns took their positions. It was all done quickly and quietly, and Belgrade slept on.

At 2 a.m. a patrol of soldiers, commanded by an Air Corps officer, appeared at the hilltop home of Premier Cvetkovitch, who had signed the Axis pact in Vienna scarcely 48 hours before. A guard stood before the door. "The Premier can not be disturbed," said the guard.

The officer said: "Nevertheless disturb him." The guard raised his rifle, but the officer was quicker with his revolver. "Stand aside," he said.

The guard stood aside.

To Premier Cvetkovitch the officer simply said: "Come." The Premier dressed and went with the patrol to General Staff Headquarters. There he found the Air Corps Chief, General Dusan Simovitch, with Chief of Staff General Peter Kossitch and Inspector General Bogoljub Hitch.

Soon other members of the Cabinet arrived. When all were there General Simovitch told the Ministers that the Army required their resignations. Less than 60 minutes after they had been aroused from their beds the Cabinet had resigned. It was then 2:51 a.m., the moment that Brock's telephone had gone dead.

The Conspirators. All that happened between then and sunrise, when 17-year-old Peter Karageorgevitch proclaimed himself King Peter II, may never be known except to the few who made those three hours of history. What happened at the White Palace of the Prince Regent was shrouded in blackest secrecy.

The character of Prince Paul of Yugoslavia has been a subject of controversy for years. His friends said he was a patriot, ambitious only to turn a united kingdom over to his nephew at the end of his regency. These people said his appeasement of Yugoslavia's Croat minority was directed toward that end. His enemies said he was a weakling, prodded by his wife, Princess Olga of Greece (whose sister is Britain's Duchess of Kent), into immense ambitions, even the ambition to rule all the Slavs, including the Russians. These people said Hitler played on Prince Paul's ambition. Certain it is that Regent Prince Paul struggled for days to get together a Cabinet that would yield to Hitler's demands. Certain it is that before he was deposed he found himself in the power of Adolf Hitler.

The serious-minded young King (who was christened with the mixed waters of Yugoslavia's three great rivers, the Sava, the Drava and the Danube) grew up as a Serb. His chief tutors were Professor Slobodan Jovanovitch of Belgrade University, who is sometimes called "Yugoslavia's intellectual conscience," and Chief of Staff General Kossitch. Peter also had an English tutor, C. C. Parrot, who taught him to like Robert Louis Stevenson and P. G. Wodehouse. As the time for his assumption of power approached (he will be 18 next September) Peter grew away from the influence of his uncle. Between his mother and ambitious Princess Olga there had always been friction, and in 1936 Queen Mother Marie had moved to England.

Yugoslavia's signature to the Axis pact brought the latent conflict between the young King and the Regent to the surface, as it brought to the surface the indignation of the Serbian people and the Army, which is predominantly Serbian. Between Peter and General Simovitch. leader of the conspiracy, General Kossitch acted as go between. When the Army struck, Peter knew all about it.

But whether Prince Paul knew about it and yielded in advance, or whether he was told of a fait accompli, only the conspirators knew. There must have been a dramatic scene in the White Palace sometime during the early morning. Later in the day it was reported that Prince Paul had been arrested at Vinkovici, near the Hungarian frontier. Still later he was reported in Greece, either a hostage or a hideaway. What was important was that Paul was gone. At dawn King Peter issued his proclamation:

Serbs, Croats, Slovenes!

In this moment so grave for our people I have decided to take the royal power into my hands. . . . The Regents have resigned. . . . I have charged General Simovitch with the formation of a new Government. . . . The Army and Navy are at my orders. . . .

The People. Soon after daybreak Correspondent Brock got a telephone call through to the British Legation. "Who's here?" said a jubilant voice. "Bloody well everybody. We're having champagne. Come on." But Ray Brock had more to do that morning. In the streets he was caught up in what he described as "the most moving and heartfelt demonstration of pure joy and thanksgiving that this correspondent has ever seen. . . .

"All around now the far and near echo of more voices grew and swelled until it seemed to beat solidly against the fronts of the big buildings in the long diagonal Terazia. From the two main avenues and from every side street the masses of people poured in and converged, separated and converged again until the huge diagonal held 6,000, later 10,000, 40,000 shouting, singing Serbian men and women.

"Huge Greek and American flags were held high overhead. There was a crash and the sound of splintering glass in the Spomenik off the Terazia as the crowds smashed the windows of the German Travel Bureau. Through double rings of Army guards upon the Terazia they pressed forward until there was another louder crash and the windows of the Italian Travel Bureau fell in splinters. . . .

"The voices that rose in song as the stars came out diminished in strength, hollower and deeper. Perhaps there were fewer students and children and more of the elders who had reflected during the day upon what Serbia and all Yugoslavia must face in the coming days. At any rate, the fighting chorus that rose from the vast crowds tonight, 'Sprenite, Sprenite, Chetnice,' sounded to some listeners as if it were no less a battle cry than a benediction."

The Problem. While the people sang, General Simovitch worked. Whether Yugoslavia could continue to exist as one nation was in doubt, and that was a risk the tall, grave-eyed General took when he staged his coup. To be Foreign Minister of his Government he picked an elder statesman who had been 17 years out of politics, 65-year-old Momtchilo Nintchitch.

To be Second Vice Premier he chose the "intellectual conscience," Slobodan Jovanovitch. The post of First Vice Premier he saved for the Croat leader, Vladimir Matchek.

Dr. Matchek hurried to Zagreb, there to confer for days with other leaders of the minority which King Peter's father, Alexander I, treated so high-handedly for years. The Croats could exact a high price for their allegiance, for Croatia could not be defended. Even complete autonomy would hardly pay them for the loss of their homes, if Germany attacked Yugoslavia. As one old Serb said to the ubiquitous Ray Brock: "In Serbia, if you find a single piece of furniture older than 30 years, it has probably been imported from Croatia or somewhere else. We Serbs had to fight, and time and again we have lost everything in defense of our honor and our integrity. The Croats--well, they still have their furniture." The German Minister, Georg Viktor von Heeren, rushed to the Foreign Office to bluster. Old Dr. Nintchitch gave him exactly six minutes to speak his piece.

When Herr von Heeren asked what the new Government intended to do about the Axis Pact, the Foreign Minister answered: "I cannot tell you that yet." Later Dr. Nintchitch announced that Yugoslavia would respect all "public and open" commitments which previous governments had made; i.e., it would not respect any secret clause in the treaty. (Insiders said that the pact contained a clause creating a no man's land on the Greco-Serb border, where Germany would be allowed to concentrate motorized divisions.) Still later Dr. Nintchitch elaborated some more: Yugoslavia was returning to a policy of "strict neutrality" and was prepared to fight for it. Germany countered by ordering all German citizens to leave Yugoslavia at once. Herr von Heeren caught the last train.

There was little more the new Government of Yugoslavia could do but prepare to face what came. But even if Hitler detached Croatia from Serbia, that would not get him at the Greeks. To reach them he would have to fight the Serbs in their own mountains or risk exposing his flank. Either course would be hazardous. At week's end Premier General Simovitch sternly demanded of his people that they stand fast and "if destiny so orders it, give their lives for the good of their homes, their fatherland and King."

Hitler had lost the initiative at last; at last he faced a dilemma. In Berlin these four days was the little Japanese, Yosuke Matsuoka, whose nation makes much of "face." If Hitler backed down before a Government of what his press called "democratic thickskulls," he would lose face in the eyes of Japan. If he went ahead, he might lose the war. Yosuke Matsuoka, gentleman that he is, refrained from discussing the week's news with his hosts, and at week's end set out for Rome, where there would be little to talk about either.

The Victory. Many statesmen had played their parts in Belgrade's coup d'etat. Winston Churchill had done much by risking an expeditionary force in Greece while Yugoslavia wavered. "Early this morning Yugoslavia found her soul," said Winston Churchill fervently. The U. S. had also played a part, by passing the Lend-Lease Act and promising aid to Britain's allies, and President Roosevelt made this promise stick in a message of congratulation to King Peter. Russia had helped, by pledging neutrality to Turkey if Turkey should be attacked, thereby suggesting to Turkey the advisability of a treaty with Yugoslavia. But those who had done most were the people, and the people appropriately rejoiced.

In Greece they sang and danced in the streets. In London they cheered and punned ("So far and no Vardar" and, of Hitler, "Serbs 'im right"). In cellars from Warsaw to Amsterdam they shook one another's hands, for at last the "free" Governments of German-conquered nations had meaning. But the most impressive demonstration outside of Yugoslavia itself was staged in Marseille, where in 1934 a Croatian terrorist assassinated King Alexander. Almost as if by magic, men & women bearing flowers appeared at the spot where the King was shot. Soon the street was covered with flowers piled high. When the police tried to break up this tribute, the people of Marseille bought tramcar tickets, dropped their flowers out of the cars. When the police closed the flower stores, the people dropped paper flowers.

It was important that the Allies' Eastern Front, which Britain and France gave away at Munich in 1938, which was mowed down in Poland in 1939, which in 1940 was pushed steadily back in the Balkans, had been established again. But the victory was more moral than military. Courage and leadership in one small Balkan nation without Kultur had brought courage, leadership and hope to free people everywhere. In streets, passers-by smiled at one another, feeling that they had been given something in common. It was as if a bell struck on a starry night in Belgrade had left its clear, sweet note ringing in the ears of the Western World.

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