A Commoner Looks at a King

Yugoslavia's youthful Peter II turned up in London last week, summoned by a commoner, to test his chances of remaining king. He came in style and in haste, in Winston Churchill's private plane, and with him he brought his worried Premier, Bozhida Purich. His fiancee, Princess Alexandra of Greece, met him at the airport, whisked him up to London by car. Gossips said a wedding was on Peter's London schedule. Alexandra's uncle, King George of Greece, had also run up from Cairo to London last week, perhaps also summoned by Commoner Churchill.

En route to London was another Yugoslav: Tito's Foreign Minister, Josip Smodlaka, whom Churchill had summoned to the same conference. Three weeks ago the British leader had called Tito an "outstanding leader," said, regretfully, that Peter's War Minister, Mihailovich, had trafficked with the enemy. Recently, too, Captain Randolph Churchill, the Prime Minister's son, had parachuted into Tito's mountain headquarters.

Peter kept as mum as a king should, pending his talks with Churchill, Eden and Stettinius, due in London soon. But his aides made sure that newsmen saw the eight-point plan that Peter or Purich, or both, hoped to put across. The four main points: divide Yugoslavia between Tito and Mihailovich; set up a joint headquarters under Allied supervision; tell both factions to stop bickering; put off all political settlements until after the war, when King Peter would submit to a plebiscite before attempting to resume his throne.

Suddenly Moscow's Pravda published an open letter to Tito from Yugoslav Ambassador Stanoye Simich, severing his connection with Peter's Government and proclaiming his allegiance to Tito. Long ready to make the switch, Simich now explained why:

> Tito is "the only representative of the Yugoslav nation."

> Purich, Mihailovich & Co. do not fight the enemy, have committed treason.

As an apparent afterthought, Diplomat Simich observed that no U.S. official had spoken out clearly for Tito, that the Yugoslav Ambassador to the U.S., Constantin Fotich, was a cousin of quisling Milan Nedich, yet persona gratissima in Washington. Fotich, said Simich, controls all Yugoslav Cabinets through his control of Yugoslav gold, now in the U.S.

Diplomats understood perfectly what it was that the Kremlin wanted Churchill and Stettinius to keep in mind while talking with King Peter: no compromise with Mihailovich and friends.

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