Knez Pavle u britanskoj konfinaciji

The author discusses the fate, evaluations and limitations of Prince Paul from the standpoint of various British statesmen after the coup d’état on March 27, 1941. On the day of the putsch in Zagreb, Prince Paul decided to go to Greece and hoped to go from there to Great Britain. Already on April 3, 1941 General Dušan Simović, the president of the new government, demanded that the prince be expelled from Athenes and that Dr. Milan Stojadinović be returned from British captivity to Yugoslavia in order to be useful in negotiations with the Germans. This request was later repeated by Dr. Momčilo Ninčić, the minister of foreign affairs, and he was supported by Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. The Serbian element of Simović\u27s government feared the prince\u27s involvement in the political situation and his influence on the young King Peter II and the vice president of the government, Dr. V. Maček. After a period of hesitation on the part of the Greek king, on April 11, 1941 Prince Paul with his family was transferred to Egypt by hydroplane, and afterwards was confined under British observation in the British colony of Kenya. The Foreign Office rejected as unconvincing the king\u27s interpretation of the motives, circumstances and reasons for joining the Tripartite Pact, stating its views in a private letter to the Duke of Kent. Dr. Ninčić wrote a pamphlet evaluating the prince\u27s personality, ambitions and motives of his politics, and the emigrant Yugoslav government distributed it for the private Information of influential British personalities. This led to a sharp conflict between the Serbian and Croatian factions of the emigrant government. The conditions of Prince Paul’s confinement in Kenya received considerable publicity in the British press. On various occasions in the House of Commons, questions were raised with regard to the prince\u27s position, status and the possibility of treating him as a war criminal. All of this found expression in the prince\u27s psychic condition. Prince Paul sought political rehabilitation. Political implicatons of the prince\u27s position and his politics were carefully examined. After discussing it with leading functionaries, and sharply criticizing the prince\u27s politics, Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed with a doctor\u27s recommendation that the prince be transferred. Despite opposition from the president of the emigrant government, Dr. Slobodan Jovanović, Prince Paul in June 1943 was transferred to Johannesburg in the Union of South Africa, where he was confined until the end of the Second World War