YUGOSLAVS AND ITALY
Sitt,—As a Slovene from Trst, who was ignominiously tried and im- prisoned by the Italian authorities for a never-committed crime under applause; and wild satisfaction of 200,000 fellow-citizens of Italian descent, I am deeply touched with the concern the British public opinion shows, in the present discussion over the future of Trst, towards the same zoo,000 Italians. They have also ignominiously tried and imprisoned my brother- Andrej, the headmaster of Slovene Public Schools in Trst, and then cowardly killed him in the prison of San Geminiano. They have tried .before their Special Tribunal and then shot in the back the best youths of the organisation, led by me, which defended our rights and honour. Hundreds were imprisoned for twenty, thirty years, for life. Many thousands have been confined and interned on the solitary islands of Lipari, Tremiti, Panteferia, &c., which are also unhealthy. Tens of thousands have been put to concentration camps throughout Italy. In a small province like the Julian March more than 100,000 Yugoslays have been deprived of all they had, and have been compelled to abandon their centuries-old homes and to expatriate.
When the war broke out, we the Yugoslays, took immediately the side of the democratic Powers, and actually fought on their side, especially helping the war effort of Great Britain. The 200,000 Italians went to war with a wild enthusiam when Italy stabbed in the bdck France and Greece. and Yugoslavia, and attacked Great Britain in the Mediterranean and even sent their air force to blitz London.
For a quarter of a century the 700,000 Yugoslays under Italy expected in vain some relief from the civilised world or at least some authoritative condemnation of such barbarism.
The lucky 200,000 Italians! I am certain they themselves are a little surprised to see, after all that has happened, their powerful advocates in the British public opinion.—Yours sincerely, DR. IVAN M. TCHOK, Committee of the Yugoslays from Italy.
Tudor Court Hotel, Cromwell Road, S.W.7. •
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