740.0011 European War 1939/24536
The Minister to the Yugoslav Government in Exile (Biddle) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 28.]
Sir: I have the honor herein to report the following substance of my recent conversation with Dr. Juraj Krnjević, Vice Prime Minister (Croat):
He said that on all previous occasions when he had talked with me he had emphasised the particular esteem in which the Croat people held our country and their belief in our institutions and in our leaders. [Page 817] This esteem and this belief had special reasons; nearly a sixth part of the Croat people were living in the United States and were continuously maintaining close contact with their country of extraction and of origin. Especially in Dalmatia and the other Croat coastal areas, it would be difficult to find a single family of which at least one member had not become a citizen of the United States. Consequently there was a great knowledge of the United States, and a great enthusiasm for its institutions throughout all Croat countries. Our leaders, moreover, enjoyed a very great authority among his people.
Our participation in the world conflict was unanimously considered by his people as the greatest and most secure guarantee of a just and sound organization of post-war Europe. Every American action in this direction was followed closely; every statement by a leader in the United States—especially President Roosevelt’s speeches—were taken as guidance and consolation in the present sufferings.
President Roosevelt, in several of his statements made since the outbreak of this war, had honored the Croat people by mentioning them expressly among the peoples suffering from Axis oppression and resisting the common enemy in spite of the creation of the so-called “Independent State of Croatia”. The latter was, in reality, nothing but a means of holding down and exploiting the Croat people for Nazi and Fascist purposes. According to direct information from Croatia, the President’s words had evoked great repercussions among the Croat people, strengthening their resistance and comforting them in their present affliction.
Dr. Krnjević had just read the full text of the President’s address to the International Students’ Assembly in Washington on September 3.27 In reading the particular paragraph wherein the President spoke of the fighting spirit in Norway, Holland, Belgium, France, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Serbia and Greece, that defied the harsh oppression, the barbarous cruelty and terrorism of the Nazi; Dr. Krnjević was very regretful not to see, among the suffering and resistant peoples, mention of the Croats. He regretted this all the more for just at present the Croat resistance was growing daily in spite of brutal reprisals. The Croat national leader, Dr. Vladko Maćek, who had been resisting the aggressors ever since the invasion, had been recently subjected even to more severe treatment, in order to prevent any contact between him and the people. Resistance was particularly intense in the regions wherefrom the greatest number of Croat immigrants to the United States had come (Dalmatia, the Upper Croatian Littoral and Northern Croatia), where a permanent warfare was being waged between the entire population and the Italian aggressors. He was afraid that this resistance and the tribulations entailed were [Page 818] not sufficiently known in Washington. Dr. Krnjević thereupon quoted the following examples:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
In concluding his conversation, Dr. Krnjević said he very much feared that the omission of the Croats from the list of peoples mentioned in President Roosevelt’s aforementioned address would prove a great disappointment both to his suffering compatriots at home and to their relatives in the United States. He was convinced that this omission had occurred only in consequence of the lack of news from Croatia in the Western countries. He would, therefore, greatly appreciate my communicating the substance of his remarks to you.
Respectfully yours,
- For text, see Department of State Bulletin, September 5, 1942, p. 729.↩