PARTITION OF YUGOSLAVIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 19 June 1941, Page 3

PARTITION OF YUGOSLAVIA

HELD TO BE NULL AND VOID ATTITUDE OF BRITAIN Rugby, June 17. Following is the text of a Note dated 11th June from the Foreign Secretary, Mr Eden, to the Yugoslav Minister from whom statements expressing the Royal Yugoslav Government’s concern at attempts by Germany and Italy to dismember the territory belonging to the Yugoslav State and nation were received:— “In the statement communicated in your Excellencies’ Note of 14th May, it was pointed out that after the occupation by German troops of portion of the Banovine of Croatia, an ‘lndependent Croatian State’ was proclaimed, under the protection of the occupying armies, by Antipavelic together with a handful of subversive individuals who had no following among the Croats. In the face of the proclamation of an independent Croatia imposed by an occupying Power the Royal Yugoslav Government protested and emphasised that all acts in connection with the establishment of this so-called independence, with the aim of partitioning Yugoslav territory and destroying Yugoslav national unity, were to be considered null and void. “In a later Note it was pointed out that an independent Croatian State! transformed into an hereditary mon- ] archy had been proclaimed in Rome. | that agreements had been signed ced- j ing to Italy large parts of the territory; belonging to the Yugoslav State and j nation, and that other agreements had , been reached which represented the camouflaged annexation to Italy of the whole territory of the newly-created j Croatian State. It was further pointed out that all territory decisions had been

made without ‘any consultation and participation of the people whose vital rights and interests were by these decisions heavily affected.’ “BRUTAL DISMEMBERMENT” “Finally, a statement contained in your Note of sth June recounts that the German and Italian Governments, after having occupied the territory of Yugoslavia by military force, annexed Slovenia, one part to Germany and one part to Italy, and that this brutal dismemberment of the Slovene people was contrary to ethical principles since this territory was inhabited ‘by a population absolutely compact and of pure Slovene origin.’ “In taking formal note of these protests by the Yugoslav Government, I would wish to avail myself of the opportunity to inform your Excellency that these acts by the German and Italian Governments are held null and void by the British Government, who is supporting and will continue to support the Government of King Peter as ! being the only duly accredited representative of Croatia and Slovenia, as of. 1 the other parts of the Yugoslav State, j

"Meanwhile I need hardly assure your Excellency that the British Government fully shares the view of the Royal Yugoslav Government V expressed in vour Notes, and it desires me to place on record its sense of indignation at the shameless manner in which Yugoslavia has been mutilated and parts of , her territory subjected to foreign rule : in gross violation ol the true feelings ! of the Yugoslav people in general and the Croatian and Slovene population J in particular.”—B.O.W.