Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst on Serbia and Serbs in the Great War

Abstract

The suffragettes Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst advocated and defended Serbian goals in British public opinion and in the political life of the British people through propaganda and unsurpassed energy. In their speeches, they consistently and persistently acquainted the British people with the struggles, traditions and history of the Serbian people, who remained at the height of their role in the fight against the enemy until the last atom of strength. These British activists wrote through the British newspaper about Serbian victories and defeats, about heroism and hard fights against the enemy, at a time when Serbia was fighting for freedom and independence, maintenance and assistance. Their speeches marked an unfortunate time for the Serbian people, who were fleeing the Serbian soil one by one before the united enemy. Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst understood all the tragedy that was ahead of the Serbian people if they were not helped in time, and they did everything in their power to send help to Serbia as soon as possible to prevent the disaster. All their texts emphasized the general reason why the Serbian front should be maintained, noting that it is of the utmost importance for the entire allied interest.
Their campaign to send aid to Serbia testifies not only to the fact that they built their great sympathies into it, but also to the exact understanding of our entire issue. Emmeline and Christabel made the Britain newspaper available to anyone who wanted to serve the Serbian cause and inform the British public about it. Through a series of pragmatic articles written by various Serbian friends and those reprinted from allied newspapers, the newspaper Britain contributed to informing the public about the war in Serbia, war goals, sufferings and duties of the allied country in times of the greatest temptation. The paper also contained illustrations from Serbian history (Emperor Dušan, Marko Kraljević, The entry of the Serbian army into Skopje in 1912). One of the last issues of the mentioned newspaper brought a reproduction of the photographic recording “hanging in Kruševac”, thus showing the Serbian struggle through history and the centuries-old suffering of the Serbian people.
From all the above, we can conclude that the importance of the activities of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst and their tireless advocacy for the Serbian people left a big mark in history. Through their propaganda activity, they enticed the British public in providing assistance to the Serbian army and civilian population in the financial, material and military sense. Also, they helped in the realization of the Serbian war program, as well as the realization of the plans of the Yugoslav political emigration by creating the Yugoslav state. They wrote their names on the list of great Serbian patriots, not only in the time in which they lived, but also in the future.