AN OPPORTUNITY LOST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 April 1941, Page 6

AN OPPORTUNITY LOST

Dealing more particularly with Yugoslavia, Mi' Churchill commented in passing on the great military opportunity its Government lost when it did not join the Greeks and throw the Italians out of Albania before the German forces appeared on the scene. But the Government of Prince Paul, untaught by the fate of so many of the smaller countries of Europe, not only observed the strictest neutrality, but refused even to enter into effective staff conversations with Greece, Turkey or Britain, but hugged the delusion that they could preserve their independence by patching up some sort of pact or compromise with Hitler. “Presently, the weak and unfortunate Prince and afterwards his Ministers, were summoned like others before them to Hitler's footstool,” said Mr Churchill, "and a pact was signed which would have given the Germans complete control, not only over the body but the soul of a Slav nation. Then, at last, the people saw their peril and, with a universal spasm of revolt, a national resurgence very similar to that which in 1802 convulsed and glorified the people of Spain, they swept from power those who were leading them into shameful tutelage and resolved at the eleventh hour to guard their freedom and honour with their lives.”