Eastern Approaches (36 page)

The concern felt by Austria increased still further. She decided to settle the South Slav problem once and for all. An opportunity offered itself in June of the following year, 1914, when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated, while on a visit to the newly annexed provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by a young Bosnian Serb named Gavrilo Princip. The Serbian Government, so the Austrians maintained, had not been entirely unconnected with the assassination. The Austrian Government delivered in Belgrade an ultimatum which the Serbs could not possibly be expected to accept.

The issue did not long remain a purely Austro-Serb one. Russia came to the help of Serbia, while Germany supported Austria. France and Great Britain were soon involved, and within a month Europe was at war. The effects of the shot fired by Gavrilo Princip were to be far-reaching.

During the four years of war the Serbs fought well against overwhelming odds. With Prince Alexander Karadjordjević, the great-grandson of the Liberator, at their head, both the Army and the civilian population performed remarkable feats of valour and endurance. They knew they were fighting for their existence as a people. They believed that victory would bring them unity with the Slav minorities in Austria-Hungary. Already during the war deserters had come over to them from the Croat and Slovene troops in the Austrian Army and in 1918 a Committee was set up to discuss the eventual establishment of
a unified kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes under the rule of the Karadjordjević dynasty. When the war was over, this was duly sanctioned at Versailles, the name being later changed to Jugoslavia, the Land of the South Slavs. In one respect, it is true, the peace settlement left Jugoslav aspirations unsatisfied. Under the peace treaty Trieste was awarded to Italy, while a band of Italian nationalists, led by the poet, d’Annunzio, seized the town of Fiume by main force.

Prince Alexander Karadjordjević, King Peter’s second son, who had led the Serbian forces to ultimate victory in the war, was proclaimed Regent of the new State. King Peter was old and his eldest son Prince George had been persuaded to give up his rights to the throne. His valet had died in suspicious circumstances some time before and Prince George, or so his younger brother maintained, had not been unconnected with his death. It was thought better for him to take a back seat.

The dreams of the early Serb patriots had come true. After bitter struggles and great tribulation the hereditary enemies, first the Turks and then the Austrians, had been overcome and driven out and now at last a true South Slav kingdom set up, ruled over by a descendant of Black George and uniting within its frontiers all their long-lost Slav brothers. All, or so it seemed, was for the best in the best of all possible worlds. But the South Slavs were not destined to live for long in peace.

The Serbs, on the whole, had little to complain of. A Serb King was on the throne. Serb officers commanded the Army. The capital remained in Belgrade, a Serbian city. This, they felt, was as it should be. Victory, after all, had been won by a Serb Army and not by their long-lost, new-found Slav brothers from across the border. Many Croats and Slovenes, they recalled, had not come over to them, but had continued to fight for the Austrians as long as there were any Austrians left to fight for. They were also, as it now appeared, different from the Serbs in many ways: in their outlook, in their habits and finally in their religion. Thus, although in the new State the newcomers amounted to about forty per cent of the total population, the feeling among the Serb ruling class was that the Croats and Slovenes must work their passage before they were admitted to full and equal partnership.

This ‘Pan-Serb’ attitude was from the outset bitterly resented by the
Croats who were in any case inclined to regard the Serbs as barbarian parvenus, and now clung jealously to what they regarded as their national rights, which, some said, had been better safeguarded under the old and reactionary, but at least civilized, Austrian Empire. Thus, scarcely had the longed-for union of all the South Slavs been effected, than Serbs and Croats were at each others’ throats in the best Balkan style.

During the years that followed the setting up of the new kingdom, Jugoslav internal affairs were dominated by the Croat problem, which loomed even larger than the Irish question in British politics before 1914. Like the Irish question, it tinged the political life of the country with violence, with religious rivalry and with a spirit of fanaticism. The proceedings of the Skupština or parliament were constantly disturbed by the increasingly violent clashes of the Croat nationalists and their Pan-Serb opponents.

Finally matters reached a crisis when in 1928 Stepan Radić, the leader of the Croat Peasant Party, was shot dead by a political opponent during a debate of the Skupština. Reckoning that things had gone too far for parliamentary government to be any longer a practical possibility, King Alexander, who had succeeded his father as King in 1921, abolished the constitution, dissolved the Skupština and set up what was in effect a personal dictatorship with the power concentrated in the hands of the monarch and authority ruthlessly enforced by a large and ubiquitous police force backed up by the Army. Little pretence at parliamentary democracy remained.

The new regime was repressive and finally confirmed Serb domination. On the other hand it stood for the preservation of order and increased administrative efficiency. Alexander, too, enjoyed a certain personal popularity. A grim, determined, conscientious man, he commanded the respect of his people by the way in which he had shared their dangers and hardships during the war, by his capacity for work, and by his undoubted devotion to what he conceived to be his duty.

But, like so many of his predecessors, Alexander was to meet with a violent end. The end of parliamentary government had driven the more extreme Croat nationalists underground or into exile. In Italy
and also in Hungary the most violent, calling themselves Ustaše, formed themselves into a terrorist organization vowed to liberate Croatia from Serb domination, and enjoying the protection of Mussolini, who saw in it a useful means of furthering his own aims in the Balkans. Their leader was a certain Ante Pavelić, a lawyer from Zagreb. From Italy and Hungary the Ustaše sent clandestine emissaries back into Jugoslavia, but Alexander’s police state was so firmly established that there was little that they could do against it. He himself lived in a closely guarded palace on a hilltop outside Belgrade, surrounded by massive blocks of barracks, housing the Royal Guards. The Ustaše waited. Their opportunity came in 1934, when Alexander paid a State visit to France. Then, as the King was driving through the streets of Marseilles with Monsieur Barthou, the French Foreign Minister, an Ustaša shot them both before he was himself cut down by the police. Looking back, I remembered the consternation which this assassination had caused in Paris. Subsequent investigations, I recalled, had shown that Ante Pavelić had not been unconnected with the murder. Indeed his connection with it was so close that in his absence he was condemned to death.

In his absence. For he continued to live in Italy under Mussolini’s protection, awaiting the opportunity to carry his plans a stage further.

Meanwhile, in Jugoslavia King Alexander’s assassination did not lead to any change in the character of the regime which he had established. If anything it became more oppressive under the rule of his cousin, Prince Paul, who assumed the regency during the minority of Alexander’s son, Peter.

In 1939, however, the outbreak of war in Europe, of war which might at any time spread to the Balkans, brought home to the rulers of Jugoslavia the need for some kind of effort on their part to conciliate the Croats and thus unite the people of Jugoslavia in the face of the danger which now threatened them. An approach was accordingly made to Dr. Maček, the leader of the Croat Peasant Party and a man of very great influence in Croatia. As a result of this, Maček agreed to enter the Government as Vice-Premier, his Party exchanged their attitude of abstention and obstruction for one of limited co-operation, while the structure of the Jugoslav State was remodelled on a federal
basis, involving a marked improvement in the position of Croatia.

Hardly had these changes been finally agreed upon, when the blow fell. In March 1941 the Jugoslav Government were presented with what amounted to an ultimatum demanding the incorporation of Jugoslavia in the Nazi New Order. For Jugoslavia to comply with such a demand would have been to sacrifice her independence. On the other hand, to refuse it meant almost certain annihilation. The men in whose hands the decision lay, the Regent Prince Paul and the Prime Minister Cvetković, decided to capitulate. Leaving hastily for Vienna at Hitler’s bidding, Cvetković returned a few days later having signed a comprehensive agreement with Germany.

But they had reckoned without the Jugoslav people. As soon as the news of their deal with Hitler became known, a spontaneous popular rising swept Cvetković’s Government out of office and Prince Paul out of the elegant white palace which he had built himself on a hill outside Belgrade. A new Government was formed under General Simović; the eighteen-year-old King Peter was declared to have attained his majority, and the pact with Germany was formally denounced.

The popular rejoicing provoked by these events was not to be of long duration. On April 6th German bombers made devastating attacks on Belgrade and on a number of other Jugoslav towns. They were followed by the German Army in force, with the Italians yapping at its heels.

Against an enemy so overwhelmingly superior in training, numbers and equipment the Royal Jugoslav Army, poorly armed and supplied, badly led and with no hope of Allied support, could do little. It was moreover still further weakened by corruption and treachery. Cases of ammunition were found, when they reached the front, to be empty or filled with sand, and, particularly among the Croat troops, there was large-scale desertion to the enemy. After a few days the capitulation was signed; King Peter and General Simović’s Government fled abroad, and the Jugoslav Army laid down their arms. Resistance, or so it appeared, was at an end, and the Germans were now free to proceed with the occupation and dismemberment of Jugoslavia.

In Croatia a new independent State was set up on strictly Fascist lines. Ante Pavelić, arriving in the train of the conquering Axis
armies, was given the title of Poglavnik or Leader. The Ustaše flocked over to become his Praetorian Guard. Their patience had at length been rewarded.

In Serbia, now separated from Croatia and reduced to her former frontiers, the role of Quisling — or perhaps it would be fairer to say of Pétain — was played by General Nedić, the former Chief of Staff.

Such Jugoslav territory as was not included within the boundaries of the new Serbia and the new Croatia was distributed amongst her neighbours. Most of Dalmatia and part of Slovenia went to Italy. Hungary received the Bačka; Bulgaria part of Macedonia, while Germany herself took part of northern Slovenia. Axis forces remained in occupation of the whole country.

Thus, once again, the South Slavs had fallen under foreign domination. But once again their love of independence was finding expression in widespread guerrilla resistance to the invader. Inevitably the issue was clouded and confused by racial rivalry and internecine feuds and factions. This time, moreover, there was a new complication, the ideological factor.

Judging by their history, the Jugoslavs might be expected to take to Fascism and Communism with the same violent enthusiasm that in the past they had devoted to religious controversy. Indeed they might even seek to improve on the originals.

We were going to Bosnia. And had not the Bosnians almost immediately after their conversion to Christianity, embraced Bogomilism, a particularly lively heresy which had caused endless irritation to the Pope? Had not these same Bosnians, having later been converted to Mohammedanism by the Turks, denounced the Sultan as false to Islam and embarked on a holy war, a jehad, to reconquer the Ottoman Empire for the true faith? There was no telling what might not happen to ideas in the Balkans.

But I found two things in all this to encourage me. First, the warlike qualities of the Jugoslav peoples and the tradition of resistance to the foreign invader, running like a golden thread, all through their national history; and, secondly, their love of independence, which again and again in their history had served to extricate them from every
sort of entanglement. Mine was primarily a military mission, and for me military virtue must therefore be the first consideration. This we seemed certain to find. What else we should find remained to be seen. But we could be sure of one thing; we should not be bored.

Before I left, the Prime Minister gave me a copy of a directive he had issued concerning my appointment. ‘What we want,’ he had written, ‘is a daring Ambassador-leader to these hardy and hunted guerrillas.’ It would not, I felt, be an easy role to fill. But I could have a try.

On reaching Cairo, I immediately found my hands full with half a dozen urgent tasks. General Wilson, now Commander-in-Chief Middle East, who was very much alive to the importance of Jugoslavia as a subsidiary theatre of war, and who had also taken a friendly interest in my activities since our first meeting in Baghdad, did everything he could to help with the preparations for our departure.

My first care was to pick up a strong side. Being only a very amateur soldier myself, I realized that it was essential for me to have a really first-class regular soldier as my second in command. The name that immediately occurred to me was Vivian Street. Vivian had given up a Grade I staff appointment at G.H.Q. to come to the S.A.S. as a Major and had had the bad luck to be taken prisoner on his first operation. Then the submarine in which the Italians were taking him to Italy was depth-charged and he was picked up by one of our own destroyers, in time to take an active part in the remainder of the North African campaign. At the age of 29 he had the well-deserved reputation of being one of the best regimental officers and also one of the best of the younger staff officers in the Middle East. He also had three qualities, which were no less important for my purposes, namely great personal courage and determination, a flexible and original mind and the gift of getting on well with all kinds of people.