DETAILS OF COUP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 March 1941, Page 5

DETAILS OF COUP

ARREST OF PRINCE PAUL AND MINISTERS ARROGANCE OF DEPOSED PREMIER INTERVIEW WITH SUCCESSOR. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Reccved This Day, 9 a.m.) LONDON, March 28. His Majesty the King telegraphed congratulations and good wishes to King Peter. When the coup d'etat was carried out, Prince Paul was at Zagreb, where he had taken refuge in the_residence of the Governor of Croatia. He was told that he had been deposed and was taken back to Belgrade at 8 a.m., where, at the headquarters of the General Staff he was informed by the Minister for Social Politics, Dr. Sudjan Budischevitch that he might leave the country as a private citizen. Prince Paul elected to go Ito Greece with his family. Mm. Tsvetkovitch and Cincarmarkovitch meantime had been arrested in their homes at 2 a.m. and similarly taken to the .headquarters of the General Staff, where they are still detained. (This conflicts with news from another source that they have been released.) All other ministers were released. M. Tsvetkovitch insisted upon an interview with General Simovitch, when he demanded arrogantly: “In whose name have you assumed power?” General Simovitch curtly replied: “In the name of those whom you never represented.” The coup d’etat was achieved by the younger officers, mostly members of the Air Force, with only one casualty, a gendarme who did not remember the password and who was killed.

AUCKLAND YUGOSLAVS DELIGHTED AT THE NEWS. AUCKLAND, March 28. There was intense excitement among the Yugoslav community in Auckland over the broadcast from Belgrade announcing the coup. Listeners said that the King’s message, interspersed with the national anthem, was repeated continuously for an hour on end last night. “We were delighted to hear the King’s proclamation, and also the announcement that the people, the Navy, and the Army were behind his Majesty,” said a Yugoslav Club official. He added that his fellow countrymen accepted the news as an indication that the country would not tolerate the Axis yoke.”