TO YUGOSLAVS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 87, 14 April 1941, Page 8

TO YUGOSLAVS.

MR. CHURCHILL'S CALL.

Victory Assured However Hard

The Fight.

British Official Wireless.

(Reed. 2.30 p.m.)

RUGBY, April 13.

Broadcasting a message to the Yugoslav people, Mr. Churchill said: "To the people of Yugoslavia, to Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, I send you my greetings. You have been wantonly attacked by a ruthless, barbarous aggressor. Your capital has been bombed, your women and children have been brutally murdered. Oiir cities in England, too, have been bombed by the same insane foe, and our women and children have been murdered. Our sympathy for you is therefore heartfelt, for wc are sharing the same sufferings, but <as we have faith in our victory so we have faith in yours.

"Do not regret the staunch courage which brought on you this ferocious onslaught. Your courage will shine out in the pages of history, and will, too, reap a more immediate reward. Whatever you may lose in the present you have saved the future. You-are making a heroic resistance against formidable odds, and in doing so you are proving true to your great traditions.

"Serbs! We know you. You were our Allies in the last war, and your armies were covered with glory. Groats jwul Slovenes! We know your military history. For centuries you were the bulwark of Christianity. Your fame as warriors spread far and wide on the Continent. . One of the finest incidents in the history of Croatia is one when in the sixteenth century, long before the French Revolution, your peasants rose to defend the rights of man and fought for those principles which for centuries gave the world democracy.

"Yugoslavs!. You are fighting for those principles to-day. The British Empire is fighting with you, and behind us is the great democracy of the United States, with its vast, ever-increasing resources. However hard the fight, our victory is assured."