Evening star., 1941-03-08
YugosIavia Cabinet
Fighting for Life
Under Nazi Pressure
Government Is Believed
Playing for Time to
See Greece's Fate
BY GEORGE WELLER,

Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent.
BELGRADE, March 8.-Hard be-
set by Germany's invitation to join
the tripartite pact, the cabinet of
Premier Dragisha Cvetkovitch fought
for life today in tense session that
has now gone on uninterruptedly for
weeks and faced the coming days
under a darkening cloud of uncer-
tainty.
The exact stage at which the Ger
man negotiations now stand is a
matter on which not even all men,
bers of the cabinet are fully in
formed and is completely hidden
from the public eye.
The more current opinion is that
Yugoslavia still is playing for time
to see when the Germans will state
their terms to the Greeks or attack
them.
Meanwhile, the nation is approx
mately one-half modified, the total
number of men under arms ap-
preaching the million mark.
With her young King a few
months away from his majority,
Yugoslavia is making decisions
under the regency of Prince Paul so
critical that they may determine
whether she is to be diSmembered,
like Czechoslovakia, Poland and
| Rumania, or allowed to continue the
slow fusion of the Serb, Croat and
| Slovene peoples, already noticeably
advanced by today's perils.
Hitler's Offer Withdrawn.
In conferences with the Yugo-
slav Premier and Foreign Minister,
Hitler offered to protect the from
tiers of the South Slavs in an axis
peace. But the offer not having
been accepted at that time, it is
now understood that it has been
Withdrawn. Moreover, the Reich
has taken up, on a more open basis,
the relationship with the Croatian
separatist movement which Italy
once cultivated.
A talk between the Croat inde-
pendent leader. Vladimir Machek,
and the German minister, Viktor
Won Herren, took place early this
week.
Yugoslavia is still bargaining hard
to keep from following Bulgaria,
Rumania and Hungary into the
pact, hunting desperately for a for
mula that will satisfy Hitler and
vet keep her free from the step
which has so far uniformly been
either the prelude or aftermath to
invasion. She is fighting not to
protect Greece and Great Britain,
who are unable to offer any mill
tary or economic bargaining power
to match Hitler, but simply to
exist.
The recent Yugoslav Hungarian
treaty of friendship was an effort
on the part of both countries to
gain a slightly greater measure OF
freedom within the Nazi pattern,
and so with the stillborn Hungarian
Bulgarian -Yugoslav- Turkish plan OF
an anti-war bloc.
At present the conciliatory Right
ist cabinet, under heavy fire
from democratic and agrarian
parties, is struggling to satisfy the
axis without joining 1t. It's MEM
bers, several of whom are pro-
Nazis and none of whom strongly
oppose the Reich, are trying to patch
together a compromise pact or dec
laration of sympathy with German
aims.
Yugoslav Generals Stubborn.
AS nearly as this writer can de-
termine, this compromise does not
seem to contain any provision for
military cooperation. But Won
Herren, the German Minister, has
not yet stated whether substitute
for the tripartite pact, unsweetened
with military concessions, is ac-
ceptable to the Fuehrer.
A fortnight ago it seemed thai
the Germans would have beer
satisfied to have their Greek ex'
petitions flank protected by tht
immobilization of the Yugosla'
Army, but today, from their Bull.
garian camp, they can ask for anc
probably get-though they still dc
not actually need - considerabl!
more.
The Yugoslav generals stubbornly
refuse to do what their politician!
say they must: Yield control of tht
military stronghold of South Serbs
-Macedonia-to the Germans fol
| (See BEL GRADE. Page A-1o)