to the irredentist concept of a United Macedonia. The group founded the "Edinstvo Perth Soccer Club" in the early 1940s. Community and youth groups were also founded. The first president of Edinstvo was George Dženev. On 18 September 1941, Naume Sharin was elected president with Mick Veloskey and Pavle Bozhinov as secretaries. During World War II many members of the Edinstvo group were called up to fight for their new mother country. After World War Two attempts by Edinstvo were made to create a unified Macedonian Australian Organisation. The Edinstvo group started radio sessions and eventually the group founded the "Makedonska Iskra" newspaper which went on to national distribution. On 24 and 25 August 1946 the Edinstvo group held an inaugural conference for all the Macedonian organisations in Australian. It was decided that the Macedonian-Australian People's League should be founded. The Edinstvo group was soon incorporated as a branch of the new organisation. The returned members would go on to found the Macedonian Australian Ex-Servicemen's League in 1947. After the creation of the People's Republic of Macedonia many Macedonians left to help rebuild the devastated country, while thousands of Aegean Macedonian refugees came to Australia, of which a large proportion settled in Perth. During the years of the Macedonian-Australian People's League the Perth group was by far the most influential branch of the organisation. The group helped organise the "Miss Macedonia" competition and other events to raise money for the Macedonian Hospital Appeals. During the first appeal the West Australian branches managed to raise over £5,500 for the Macedonian hospitals. In 1948 the Makedonska Iskra newspaper was moved to Sydney. The "Macedonian Soccer Club" which was disbanded during World War Two was eventually replaced by "Makedonija" in 1947, "Alexander" in 1954 and finally "Olympic" in 1956. In 1948 the organisation took the initiative to build a Macedonian Hall in Perth. The contributed drive was to come from the "Macedonian Ladies Section" of the group. On 23 May 1948 Mrs Diana Pappas was elected as President of the group. At this meeting it was agreed that a hall was needed for the "Edinstvo" group, "Macedonian Soccer Club" and the "Macedonian Ladies Section". In 1949 the group purchased a hall in Leederville with a deposit of £80. However, there was friction within the group and the Hall was sold. The profits were put into buying a block of land in Church Street,