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Three Ministers were flatly opposed. They were Minister of Agriculture Chubrilovitch, Minister of Justice Mihajlo Konstantinovitch and Minister of Social Welfare Srdjan Budisavljevitch. All were members of the Serbian minority party and Dr. Chubrilovitch's brother was put to death by the Austrians for taking part in the assassination at Sarajevo. All three resigned from the Cabinet.
Four Days, Four Nights. Prince Paul worked day & night from Thursday until Monday to reorganize his Cabinet. A special train with steam up waited in Belgrade's railroad station to take Ministers Cvetkovitch and Cincar-Markovitch to Vienna to sign on Hitler's dotted line. During those four days & nights much happened. British and Greek diplomats worked feverishly in Belgrade to swing the Yugoslav Government to their side. The British made it clear that if Britain won the war with Yugoslavia on the German side, Yugoslavia's dream of a pan-Slavic State in the Balkans would be ended. The Greeks made it equally clear that even permission to the Germans to send supply trains through Yugoslavia would be regarded as a "hostile act."
The Church swung into action. Bishop Nicholai of Belgrade preached a sermon against capitulation. Patriarch Gavrilo Dozitch of the Serbian Orthodox Church went to the White Palace to warn Prince Paul against giving the Germans power over the Church. Bishop Valerian Pribichevitch, brother of the late great Patriot Svetozar Pribichevitch, telegraphed his resignation to the Regent; it would become effective when Yugoslavia signed with Germany.
The Army was mobilized, 1,000,000 strong, and most of the Army was ready to fight for independence. General Dusan Simovitch, Chief of the Air Force, was one of these. But War Minister Pesitch was old and frightened; he would not give the order. On whether the Army obeyed its leaders, or revolted under its younger officers, depended the fate of the last and hardest neutral nut that Hitler has tried to crack with his pincers.
In a Belgrade high school pupils set up a picture of Hitler and pelted it with chalk. This was part of a demonstration for the 13-year-old son of Justice Minister Konstantinovitch, one of the three Ministers who resigned from the Cabinet. But while the schoolboys were carrying young Konstantinovitch around the classroom on their shoulders, his father withdrew his resignation and joined the Government majority.
This was the signal that ministerial resistance was at an end. Prince Paul had his pro-Axis Cabinet and fresh jets of steam shot up from the special train as it chuffed out of Belgrade's station on a clear track for Vienna. Yugoslavia had fallen to the Axis—but not all Yugoslavs.
The Yugoslav Army was sleeping in its boots and side arms. Pamphlets strewn in the streets of Belgrade threatened assassination for the men who had capitulated.
In villages from the Danube to the Adriatic peasants still marched, some with guns. They thought the Army was with them and they sang:
The British are sending the navy;
Roosevelt is sending the planes;
And we, the battalions!