大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Pennie Hedge, a volunteer from 大象传媒 London, on behalf of Bernard Lee and has been added to the site with his permission. Mr Lee fully understands the site鈥檚 terms and conditions.

When the war ended in Europe, the Yugoslav Royal Family and its government were in exile in London and Tito鈥檚 communists had taken control of Yugoslavia.

I was stationed in Trieste. One evening I went out with two or three of my friends to a small restaurant in Trieste. The restaurant had a small dance floor and on the other side of the restaurant there was a very handsome couple. My friends dared me to go over to ask if I could have a dance with the girl. I went over and in my best Italian asked if I could dance with her, and to my surprise they replied in perfect English that she would be happy to do so. They were such a charming couple that I sat down and spent the rest of the evening talking to them.

During the conversation I mentioned that I was going home to London on leave in a week鈥檚 time. They said that they would like me to meet some of their friends and invited me to a party a few evenings later. When I got there, I realised that all the people there were Yugoslav aristocracy. And they asked me if I could take some letters back from them to the Yugoslav Prime Minister in London, telling them of the situation in Yugoslavia. I agreed, and was told to make contact with the Prime Minister through a Yugoslav journalist working for the 大象传媒 at Bush House in London.

I did contact him and he arranged for me to meet the Prime Minister two days later in the Atheneum, a very exclusive gentleman鈥檚 club. I did meet him and had tea with him, and handed over the correspondence from Trieste. He then asked me if I would take correspondence from him back to his friends in Trieste and again I agreed to do so. A meeting was then arranged at the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) in Pall Mall a few days later. On this occasion I was able to take my wife Joyce with me as ladies were allowed in the RAC Club. We had tea with the Prime Minister, Mr Mihailovic and he gave me the papers to take back to Trieste.

A few days after I returned I made contact with my friends and gave them the papers Mr Mihailovic had given me.

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