YUGOSLAVIA COMPLIES WITH U.S. ULTIMATUM

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 269, 26 August 1946, Page 3

YUGOSLAVIA COMPLIES WITH U.S. ULTIMATUM

BROZ-TITO EXPRESSES REGRET FOR INCIDENTS

American Attitude Not Defined

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright.)

WASHINGTON. August 24

The Stjite Department said that messages from the United States Ambassador, Mr Richard Patterson, “indicated” that Yugoslavia had complied with the American ultimatum, but it remained to be seen what efforts Yugoslavia would make to right the wrong done. *

Mr Patterson reported that during a conference Marshal BrozTito emphasised that he was extremely sorry for what had happened and promised to meet the American demands. He said the incidents would not be repeated. Yugoslavia would always accept in reasonable numbers planes forced off their course by weather, loss of direction or mechanical difficulties. Marshal Broz-Tito suggested that means be worked out for such planes to signal distress. He claimed that the incidents were not the result of special orders, and emphatically not retaliation for Yugoslavs shot by the American border patrol. The Yugoslav flights acted in normal defence of the frontier. The American transport on August 19 was 50 kilometre? inside Yugoslavia. Marshal Broz-Tito said he had given repeated warnings against the continuation of unauthorised flights over Yugoslavia. The State Department said no further statement of the American attitude would be made until full reports of the incident had been received.

General Joseph T. McNarney’s headquarters at Frankfurt announced that regular direct air transport flights between Vienna and Udine were being resumed to-morrow.

» A senior officer said the pilots would be instructed as previously carefully to avoid flying off their course or flying over Yugoslavia. A’search party headed by Mr Patterson found the wreckage of the second American plane shot down on a wooded hillside in the Julian Alps, near the Austrian frontier, reports the correspondent of the Associated Press at Belgrade. '

The party learned reliably that nobody parachuted from the plane. A number of Yugoslav militia told them that at least five bodies were buried on Wednesday in a common grave in the village of Koprivnik. , American searchers also found a peasant who told them about providing a common coffin for the bodies and parts of bodies found in the wreckage. Mr Patterson arranged for the opening of the grave.

A Paris message states that Mr Kasanovic, Yugoslav Ambassador to the United States, who is a member of the Yugoslav peace delegation, told the Press that the Turkish officer shot down with the American fliers was being held because an investigation has shown that the flight over the area was “not accidental.”

Deprived of Food and Clothes

Marshal Broz-Tito at a Press con- ’ ference in Belgrade accused the Ameri- i can .military authorities of a deliberate 1 aerial- reconnaissance of Yugoslav ( military installations 1 along the Italo- i Yugoslav frontier., “Systematic flying oyer our territory has not been an accidental departure from routes because of the weather,” he said, “but intentional by pilots who do not respect our sovereignty and fly over the boundary without permission to shorten the way, as they themselves state.” • Nothing But Respect Marshal Broz-Tito said Yugoslavia asked nothing but respect for its sovereignty. The correspondent of the Associated Press in Belgrade says the report that Marshal Broz-Tito refused to “accept or reject” the American ; Note was the result of a mistransla- 1 tion. The Yugoslavs now explain that < the statement, quoting the Belgrade radio, meant that Broz-Tito “set aside” the American Note as being no long- ] er relevant. . , i Yugoslavia intends to bring the question of America’s infringement of its territorial sovereignty before the Security Council as soon as possible, states the correspondent of the “Daily Mail” in Paris, quoting authoritative sources. The question will be raised mrespec- ; tive of what America does about shoot- i ing down American aircraft. This indicates that there is no easing of the dispute between the two countries. A Yugoslav spokesman asserted that American aircraft had infringed Yugoslav authority more than 160 times in recent months. The infringements might sometimes be accidental, ■ but they might be deliberate. « ; The correspondent comments that the Yugoslavs are convinced that their country has been used' recently as a

base for intelligence operations, presumably against Russia, in which American aircraft are believed to have played an important part.

In a letter to the United Nations Yugoslavia charged the Allied military authorities with failing, without valid reason, to restore to her 167 barges and other vessels which the German Army removed to the Upper Danube during its retreat from Yugoslavia early in 1945. Yugoslavia asked that the question should be placed on the agenda at the next meeting of the Economic and Social Council. The fact that the vessels were lying idle in the Upper Danube threatened many branches of economic life in Yugoslavia with disaster. Materials which Yugoslavia needed for the manufacture of agricultural machinery had not been imported from Poland and Czechoslovakia, and consequently Yugoslavia was obliged to import machinery through the United Nations Relief Rehabilitation Association from Britain and America, while the farmers in those countries lacked machinery.

Yugoslavia was also unable to export to her neighbours commodities which were always carried by river before the war. Thus millions of suffering people were being deprived of clothes and food. \ The> United States controls the Upper Danube zone, in which the vessels are allegedly being held, but it was pointed out that Yugoslavia sent her letter before the current tension over the shooting down of American aeroplanes. ,

Dr. Stampar, the chief Yugoslav delegate to the United Nations, in an interview, said that he knew nothing of the reports that Yugoslavia had lodged a complaint against the United States with the Security Council, nor did he know of any intention by Marshal BrozTito’s Government to carry the matter to the Council. “It is not a matter for the Security Council,” he said. *He added that the United Natidns issued the text of the letter after • publication of the Moscow broadcast, • thus making it clear that Yugoslavia’s ( complaint is to the Social and Econo- , mic Council only. i The Moscow radio is reported to have declared that Yugoslavia charged ■ the United States specifically with refusing to relinquish the vesseis, whereas the letter referred only o the “Allied military authorities.” The United States Secretary of War (Mr Robert Patterson), addressing the American Legion Convention at Lowell, Massachusetts, expressed “intense indignation” that Yugoslavia should shoot down American aeroplanes and then attempt to justify its action. He added that he was sure that the State Department’s legal, reasonable demands were supported by the entire American people. _ i Mr Patterson called on the Legion to assist the War Department to , establish an army of 1,070,000 men by July 1, 1947. “I hope the nation has ] learned that in modern war we cannot ; wait until hostilities begin before raising an army,” he said. < <