YUGOSLAV CONSUL LYNCHED

Evening Star, Issue 26011, 28 January 1947, Page 5

YUGOSLAV CONSUL LYNCHED

ATTACKED IN EXPATRIATES' GAMP SHORT SHRIFT FROM EX-CHETHIKS (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) (Rec. noon.) LONDON, Jan. 27. The ‘ Manchester Guardian’s ’ Rome correspondent says, the camp in which the lynching of the Yugoslav Consul occurred is at Poggio Reale, a few miles from Naples. It contains about 1,000 Yugoslav soldiers, who are sup T porters of King Peter. They are being maintained by the British Government pending a decision, about their destination after demobilisation. Allied Force headquarters at Caserta stated that the British officer commanding the camp did his best to dissuade the Yugoslav Consul and his secretary from entering the camp, but after first going away they returned and commenced _ to address the men upon the advisability of returning to Yugoslavia. They were immediately rushed and overpowered and lynched. The Consul’s skull was found to be fractured by an iron bar, and he was already dead when the rescuers arrived. His secretary, Joseph Vincolish, is not expected to recover. The inmates of the camp were quieteped only with the greatest difficulty. The Italian Press refrained from comment, with the exception of the Communist 'organ, ‘ Unita,’ which says: “The Italian people cannot tolerate outlaws of other countries and enemies of liberty being kept here under the Allied command and' allowed to give free vent to their criminal intentions.”

The ‘ Manchester Guardian’s ’ correspondent says: “ It is high time these men were demobilised. It is quite useless to entertain hopes of making them into supporters of Tito’s Yugoslavia, since they are nearly, all ex-Chetniks and supporters of Mikhailovich. They fought with the British in Italy and North Africa, and until recently have been providing the. guard at British headquarters in Naples.” [An earlier message stated that two representatives of the Yugoslav Government Repatriation Commission were injured, one fatally, when anti-Tito Yugoslav soldiers in a camp near Naples attacked them when they went to interview camp inmates.]