Proletarec. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1906-19??, 1944-10-18

PetrlnOVIc. Their advice was in
valuable. But I'm sure that there
were others whose names do not
at the moment occur to me and
who, too, we're very helpful.
Besides these, we in the United
Committee office had the support
financial and moral-of many
Yugoslav American groups and in
iividuals throughout the country
lin New York City, Pittsburgh,
Cleveland, Chicago, Gary, Mil
Uaukee, st. Louis, Kansas City,
and on the Coast. | shall not men,
ton all of them by name. In fact
[ shall mention but one group and
one individual The group is the
Yugoslav Seamen's Club in New
York. They helped us pack and
mail our pamphlets and bulletins.
The individual whom l want to
mention happens to be among us
today: my friend-our friend
Nick Bee from Seattle, a success
full businessman out there who,
on learning of our work, came to
support full blast.
If I'm not mistaken, Mr.. Bee
is largely responsible for over ten
thousand dollars made available
Cor our work. He is the moving
spirit behind the American Com
mitee for Free Yugoslavia in
Seattle. In addition to all that, he
vas immensely helpful to me in
Washington, D. c., where he
Knows everybody and where his
contacts were invaluable when our
light was toughest. | shall eve
torget an evening he arranged for
ne SO that I could talk about Yugo-
,lavia to four important members
If the United States Senate and
several significant officials in the
Administration.
l don't believe that Nick wants
me to talk about him too long; l
shall merely emphasize that / have
a deep feeling of special debt to
lin because he was not, still is not,
a member of the Committee, yet he
rendered a service whose scope
and importance, believe me, can
not be exaggerated. Learning that
he was in Washington this week,
I inveigled him into coming here,
SO that | might have a chance to
'ay these words to his face-and so
nat l might ask you, the Commit
tee, to recognize what he's done.
Applause.)
Now to come back to our situa-
ion last spring.
Mr.. Balokovic, of course, was
the logical man to take over, and
t was fortunate that he was per-
Sonally in a position to assume the
ask and the responsibility.
To repeat: the first period -
which was largely political =
ended early last spring. But we
had been thinking of the next
period before the first one ended.
We knew that relief would be of
paramount Importance as the lib
ration of Yugoslavia approached.
That time is here now. Mr.. Baloko-
vic and MIR, Maletich will report on
that; and 1 expect we're going to
nav a general discussion of it.
7 want to say just this-that I hope
For as much unity in the relief as
we had in the political period.
Finally, l want to thank you all
rom the depth of my heart for the
fellowship which I have enjoyed
since we formed our Committee,
and for the privilege you afforded
me in permitting me to serve the
cause that for many of us right
now is personally symbolized by
Tito. 1t is actually the of the
common man everywhere. This
Committee has a worthwhile fu-
ture only if we-all of us-con-
tinue to serve that cause boldly,
honestly, with everything we nave.
l am confident that none of us
wants to do anything else. Our eff
fort has been in the right direction.
Well continue that waylboldly,
unitedly, honestly, with the pas
sion that lives in US because we
stem from Yugoslavia and live in
America. We owe that to ourselves
as men and women-to America
- to Yugoslavia-to the c%leareSt,
most heroic figure of this war, Mar
shall Tito.
Cd Inc Committee paid tribute
to the late Martin Bogdanovich by
standing in silence for one minute.