§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That this House do now adjourn."—[Mr. A. S. L. Young.]
§ On the Motion for the Adjournment of the House:
§ Flight-Lieutenant Teeling (Brighton)I have been waiting now for some weeks for the opportunity to say something about the position in Yugoslavia, and to ask for a little more guidance than has previously been possible. I fully recognise that, in the last few days, things have been going rather rapidly. I see that King 154 Peter has gone with his Prime Minister to take part in discussions with Marshal Tito.
I believe it is also greatly hoped that these discussions may very soon embrace General Mihailovitch himself. Many of us have been very puzzled in the country in the last few months, and, indeed, for the last year, as to what is the position at the moment, and during the past year, with regard to Yugoslavia. Many of us, like myself, who have been out there a great deal in the past, have a very great affection for the country. I, personally, can quite frankly claim that I have a particularly soft spot for the Serbs: I will not say Serbia as such, but the Serbs as a whole, because there are 7,000,000 or 8,000,000 in what was the old Serbia proper, and 2,000,000 more in other parts of Yugoslavia to-day. What can be happening there to-day? Why has there been such a complete change—if there has been—in the last year?
I would straight away say that I have no criticism to make of the Government with regard to their attitude in supporting Marshal Tito. The Prime Minister has made it quite clear that Tito, and everybody who is against our common enemies, Germany and Japan, would get the utmost support from this country, and that, no doubt, is the same with regard to Russia and to the United States. Every small country in the world, I think, realises what our position is and considers it to be a very fair point of view. Equally, I do not want to criticise Mihailovitch, unless it can be proved to me that he is either definitely fighting against us or is supporting Germany and Japan and, even so, there are many Serbs who could presumably take the place of Mihailovitch. There are something like 200,000 of them, and, as the Prime Minister has pointed out, they are worth while and fine fighters.
If Mihailovitch is bad, why cannot the Serbs have someone else? Undoubtedly, the Serbs never have been, and never will be, keen on having to follow someone who does not come from their own part of the country. That is unfortunately the case. It is not like us living in England and Scotland. We can, quite willingly, have a Scotsman here to take control of the helm, but, unfortunately, the Serb will not have it. With regard to Marshal Tito himself, there is no reason to criticise him because he is a Communist. I do not like 155 Communists in this country, because I do not think we need them here, though they may be needed in other countries. I am not at all sure that a Communist in Russia is quite the same thing as a Communist in China or in Yugoslavia. There are many people who suggest that Tito is, in many ways, too extreme for Marshal Stalin, and I should not be a bit surprised if, after the recent events in Yugoslavia, we may not see some very striking changes in the policy of Russia towards Mihailovitch and the Serbs and Yugoslavia as a whole.
The reasons why I think that is a possibility are that, just as our Prime Minister says that, in some countries, he supports kings and, in others, he supports Communists, in fact, supports anybody who, at the moment, is fighting against the common enemy, so exactly does Marshal Stalin support Fascists in some countries, like Badoglio, or Communists in others, because he is a complete realist, as our own Prime Minister must be in a war like this. I believe there is a perfectly good organisation of Serbs headed by Mihailovitch, and that it would be quite possible for Marshal Stalin to come to an agreement with them.
Hon. Members may have noticed that there has not been, in the recent month, any further criticism on the Moscow radio, as there used to be in the old days, of Mihailovitch. Why I mention it is because Tito's Mission in Moscow made a statement which I am willing to show to the Foreign Office, if they have not got it already, on 29th June, 1943, in which he said, roughly, that they had hoped only to get support from Russia, but, as, unfortunately, Russia was far too busy fighting a very terrible war with Germany at that time, they would have to get some support from the Western Powers temporarily, and in getting that support would then get support of all Yugoslav people, as well as the Communists. I think the day will eventually come when Tito, whom we alone are now supporting, will decide that he no longer wants to have very much to do with us. I am thinking of future days, to which we have all got to look, and we have to realise that we may find ourselves with a Yugoslavia governed again by the Serbs, and with a people who will be very bitter to us when they think of the way we have behaved towards them at the present time. We may find ourselves in that difficult 156 position. These are just preliminary remarks which I want to make in suggesting that we have to see if we cannot possibly have two lots of friends in that country.
Our Prime Minister has said that what he wants is to rally all fighting people to our side. Could there be any better fighters than the Serbs? We know that, in the old days, under Turkey, they always chose the Serbs as the best fighters, and after that, when they eventually got away from the Turks in the 19th century, Liberals, Socialists and Conservatives in this country watched with great interest their struggle and acknowledged the efforts of a plucky little nation, whom all of us admired during those appalling days of 1914 and 1915, when old King Peter, the Karageorgevitch dynasty and the whole of the Serbs fought solidly on our side, and were right with us to the bitter end until 1918. Then the Croats and Slovenes, who were under Austria in the old days, broke away from Austria and all came together into a tripartite kingdom and formed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
It has been an unhappy family all along, from that day until the beginning of this war, but, surely, we have not forgotten that, early in this war, when it looked blackest for us and Russia was not then on our side, it was then that King Peter's friends overthrew the Prince Paul Government and decided to come in on our side. It is something that should not be forgotten. It was the Serbs, far more than the Croats and Slovenes, who did that, and King Peter came in with the Serbs. The results were not too good, from the fighting point of view, and very soon the Government had to flee the country, but they came to us, and I do not think it ought to be forgotten to-day. Soon after they arrived here, they began the job of forming those who remained behind into an organisation under this man Mihailovitch, who had been to prison only shortly before because he had insisted on a plan of campaign for the defence of the country—the guerilla plan of campaign, which is the plan he has been carrying out there ever since and is, I understand, ready to carry out now.
He took over control and really made the Serbs feel that they had something of which again to be proud. Perhaps we have not forgotten that in all these days after 1941 and 1942 everybody in this country talked about the wonderful efforts 157 and the wonderful work of Mihailovitch. Perhaps we have not forgotten, in our own great advance in Africa not long after, that in those days the Jugoslav Army attacked various sections of the Belgrade-Salonica line. I hope that we have not forgotten the damage that they inflicted on transport at this crucial moment, so explicitly recognised here by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and General Eisenhower and General Auchinlech and Air Marshal Tedder, who all sent congratulations to Mihailovitch, congratulating his army on the services they had rendered to the Russians and ourselves. These things should be remembered with regard to the more distant past.
We are told that from then on something must have gone wrong. I believe we advised the General that he should not do too much until we could send him support. We have to realise that Tito's men, the Communists, had had an appalling time when the Germans moved in to Croatia and Slovenia. They were tortured, their homes were burned and they were pushed out. They went roaming through different parts of the country with nothing further to lose. All power to them for what they have tried to do. But there is another side to be argued in reference to those Serbian peasants at the back of Mihailovitch who had not lost their country. There were about 200,000 active peasants and they were to blow up bridges and railways and the usual things that guerillas do. But they can be repaired in two hours, and then the Serbs attacked by the Germans who come down to their villages and burn homes and kill anything from 100 to 200 as they pass on. I think that Mihailovitch would say, "I will do this, if you will come and join us, but do you want us to do it?" We did not ask the Czechs or French or the Belgians and why should we ask Serbs to-day until we are ready with our own people to come forward and back them up. I believe that the Serb organisation is there to-day, if it was given the arms, to come out as soon as we decide we want them to do it, and it is time to do it.
§ Mr. Mander (Wolverhampton, East)Is it the case of the hon. and gallant Member that the Prime Minister is misinformed in thinking that Mihailovitch and his friends are not fightng against the enemy, and that he has better information?
§ Flight-Lieutenant TeelingI am coming to that in a moment. I am trying to explain that the Prime Minister has stated in this House that he knows well that there are hundreds of thousands of people in Serbia, fighting peasants and fighting types, and he wants to see how they will be led and if it is going to be possible for them to fight, whether it will be under Mihailovitch or somebody else, not necessarily Tito, is another matter. I would point out that there are definitely a large number of Serbs, by far the largest number, who do not wish to come under an organisation run by Marshal Tito. They want to fight against Hitler and against the Quisling groups, who are already in Belgrade and in control of the towns, but they do not want to do so until they know that we are ready to come and support them. There is plenty of proof that General Mihailovitch has been doing quite a lot. We have only to read, and to hear that the same sort of broadcasts which are put out by Tito are also put out by General Mihailovitch.
We have had a Mission of our own with Mihailovitch and so have the Americans. We have had a Mission with Tito. Neither of them mixes with the other Mission out there. I could quote, if there was time, a large amount of information which is seen in American newspapers but not, unfortunately, in our own, why, I do not know. It is known to a large number of people in this country how American airmen, several of them, coming down, have been rescued by Mihailovitch, and how the Jews who were being taken from one prison camp to another were rescued by Mihailovitch, and that Mihailovitch and Tito both had 1,000 gold marks put as the price on their heads by the Germans. In this country, only the fact that it was against Tito was mentioned at all. I cannot understand why it is. It seems to be a solid campaign which has, unfortunately, got almost everybody in this country to-day feeling a solemn and firm conviction that Tito is the only man who is the least willing to help our cause.
Can anybody explain why it is that Mihailovitch so completely switched over? In all the statements that appear, he states that he feels that we must win in the long run. Of the people who have worked with him, not one of them feels that he is on the other side, and they very definitely feel that there is a great possi- 159 bility, if only we would treat him a little more tactfully and in a little less extreme measure of agreement. As one of the Serbs over here said, "Do not please try and treat him as a Zulu chief." Very few people seem to realise that whereas the Right and Left wings in this country are quite friendly and get on among themselves, yet out in the Balkans politics is one of the fiercest things possible. The leader of the Right is quite willing even to attempt to shoot the leader of the Left. I found when I went out to Belgrade to lecture for the British Council that one of the most difficult things to explain was that we had a leader of His Majesty's Opposition in this country and we paid him a salary. That seemed fantastic out there.
We have these people whether we like it or not. We cannot call them Fascists, because several of Mihailovitch's supporters are Republicans, many being Belgrade professors. Tito is a Communist, but he will not have anything to do with the Mihailovitch régime, nor has he said he will have anything to do with King Peter. As far as I know, General Velebit definitely stated that he thought that it was quite impossible to have an agreement with King Peter. I gather that the whole of that organisation will not have anything in the long run to do with him. King Peter could not communicate, until yesterday or the day before, with his own people in Jugoslavia. We have put across to them that the King was giving up all his old friends in Serbia, in order to join with the man who, openly and definitely, stated that he did not want to have anything more to do with him.
I do not think that is a fair way for this country to behave. I think that it is perfectly easy for us to have the full support of Tito, and his groups, and his friends, and the equally full support of the Serbs, whether with Mihailovitch or without him, for they are in quite different parts of the country. They can have two separate commands if you like with their different armies under a supreme Allied commander—there is nothing to prevent it—and leave the political side out of it altogether until after the war, which is what we are trying to do with every other country. Above all, let us at least, if we are using influence, try to use influence on our Press and on the B.B.C. to pre- 160 vent them from making such a one-sided picture, that all those who know the country are beginning to doubt if it really can be quite as bad as it is being made out to be, whereas all those people out there are beginning to wonder if it is really at all worth while having any friendship with us. We will lose the whole support of the fighting elements, without whom Yugoslavia cannot possibly carry on.
§ The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. George Hall)My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Brighton (Flight-Lieutenant Teeling) has waited patiently for the opportunity of raising this matter, and no one can complain about the plea which he has made for, if I may say so, that race of people of great character, of great courage, who have done such excellent work in Yugoslavia, the Serbs. I am afraid he has arrived at his conclusions without taking that complete view of the picture of Yugoslavia seen by those who have kept in constant touch with the position as it has existed since the commencement of the war. A full statement of His Majesty's Government's policy as regards Yugoslavia was made by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on 24th May during the two-day Debate on Foreign Affairs. If my hon. and gallant Friend will re-read that speech he will find that the Prime Minister went out of his way to pay a tribute to the Serbs, and the whole tenor of that speech was that he was anxious to bring together the great races which make up the population of Yugoslavia so that there could be a united effort against the common enemy.
Since the Prime Minister's statement, much has happened. It will be remembered that, following the resignation of the then Yugoslav Government, King Peter appointed Dr. Subasic, the Ban of Croatia, as his new Prime Minister. At the same time, King Peter, in a declaration which he issued after paying a great tribute to the Yugoslays—not to any particular section of the Yugoslavs, but to all of them who were and are so heroically continuing the struggle for liberty within their own country—made an appeal to all his people for national unity, asking them to lay aside their differences and to postpone all political internal issues until the liberation of the country, when they will be free to choose the regime under which they wish 161 to live in the future. The King also made it clear that the new Government, without regard to political views, would devote itself to the purpose of working with all those elements in Yugoslavia who are actually resisting the enemy. It could only fulfil its part completely in collaboration with, and with the support of, all resisting elements in Yugoslavia. The new Prime Minister was, consequently, asked to establish, and he has since established, direct contact with those elements before deciding upon the composition of the Government. My hon. and gallant Friend will already be aware, from the joint communiqué which was issued by the new Prime Minister and Marshal Tito and which appeared in the Press a few days ago, that the first conversations have met with a striking measure of success.
I think that without undue optimism we may confidently look forward to a further development in these relations in the near future. These efforts towards unity have the wholehearted support, not only of His Majesty's Government, but of the Government of the United States of America and of the Soviet Government, who, like ourselves, welcome them, not only because they constitute a new threat to the enemy in a part of the world where he is particularly vulnerable, but because they mark the first step forward to the healing of the wounds which have hitherto weakened our friend and Ally, Yugoslavia. We are very hopeful that the result of these conversations will be that the internal factions and conflicts which have hitherto divided the country will disappear, and that we shall see the establishment of a single front of resistance against the common enemy.
With regard to General Mihailovitch, it is, unfortunately, useless to deny the fact that evidence has been steadily accumulating from many sources, that he has, for many months past, refrained from active operations against the enemy, and that some of the leaders under his command have, so far from fighting the Germans, directed their efforts against the Partisans who for their part have been engaged in warfare against the foreign invader. 162 Actions have taken place in which certain Cetnik leaders have joined forces with the Axis, to attack hard-pressed Partisan formations. On the other hand, at least one prominent Cetnik leader, tired of this policy of accommodation, has recently come over to the Partisans. It should also be borne in mind that the Partisans themselves have numerous and powerful formations within Serbia itself, and Marshal Tito has many Serbs serving under him.
When there was no longer any room for doubt, about either General Mihailovitch's attitude or the activities of certain of his lieutenants, it was decided that we could not continue to give his organisation any further active support. The British and the American liaison officers attached to his headquarters were accordingly withdrawn. The information at our disposal was communicated to the Yugoslav Government.
I do want to assure my hon. and gallant Friend and the House that, as far as His Majesty's Government are concerned, they are very anxious that the differences which exist between the various races and peoples of Yugoslavia should disappear and that they should all come together and work with us against the common enemy. I think we know too much about the Serbs to be hostile in any way to them and the same can he said of the Croats and the Slovenes. I would like to say in conclusion that, not only is this the policy of His Majesty's Government, but it is also the policy of the Government of the United States and of the Soviet Government. The three great nations are completely of the opinion that there should be the agreement that we hope for as a result of the negotiations which are proceeding at the present time.
§ It being half an hour after the conclusion of Business exempted under the provisions of the Standing Order (Sittings Of the House), Mr. DEPUTY-SPEAKER adjourned the House, without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order, as modified for this Session by the Order of the House of 25th November.