RETURN OF TRIESTE TO ITALY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 137, 22 March 1948, Page 3

RETURN OF TRIESTE TO ITALY

PROPOSAL BY BRITAIN, U.S. AND

FRANCE

(N.Z.P.A. —Copyright). , LONDON, March 20.

The British Foreign Office has issued a joint declaration by Britain, France and the United States on a proposal to return Trieste to Italy.

The announcement said the Three Powers made this decision because the United Nations ’Security Council could not agree on the selection of a Governor for Trieste, and because Yugoslavia had virtually incorporated its zone into Yugoslavia. ,It added that the Yugoslav authorities had evicted Italians from the zone, established a totalitarian police force, confiscated land for political reasons and redistributed it, established people s courts, and suppressed opposition newspapers and meetings. Yugoslavia’s measures had definitely compromised the. possibility of putting into force the Permanent Statute for the Trieste territory.

An announcement that France, Britain and the United States had decided that Trieste must be returned to Italy to keep the peace between Italy and Yugoslavia was made by the French Foreign Minister (Mr Bidault) at the signing of the Italian-French Customs Union protocol in Turin. Mr Bidault added that the French Government maintained that Italy should also regain control of her former African colonies.

The French Foreign Office has handed identical Notes to the Russian and Yugoslav Embassies in Paris, proposing the restoration of Trieste to Italy.

Reuters diplomatic correspondent says: “The Trieste declaration increases tremendously the stakes in the Italian general election on April 18. The Free territory now appears to Italians ■- as a prize which may vitally affect their votes next month.

M. Bidault said that France had agreed to make Trieste a free territory only because “certain of our parties refused obsolutely to give Trieste to Italy.” But France had come to the conclusion that this regime was no longer tenable, and that in the inter;, ests o4j>eace bet Ween Italy and Yugoslavia it was important to find another solution. This solution France believed to be the return of Trieste to Italy. ' ’ , A United States State Department announcement in Washington said that the proposal to return Trieste to Italy had been made on behalf of the United States Government to the Ruseian and Italian embassies.

The proposal for the return of Trieste to Italy would be submitted to the Security Council for approval. The return of the Free Territory of Trieste to Italian sovereignty bad been adopted as tiie best solution to meet the democratic aspirations of the people and to make possible the reestablishment of pe|ice and stability in the area.

United Nations legal experts at Lake success are somewhat puzzled by the announcements that the Trieste proposal would be submitted to the Security Council for approval. They commented that Trieste’s status was entirely the responsibility of the Foreign Ministers’ Council, who created the free zone, and that the Security Council came into the picture only as a “prpteccting power” to ensure that the zone was respected. Even assuming that the Security Council had power to alter the Foreign Ministers’ decision, it was obvious that any such move could hardly be regarded as procedural and would therefore come under the Soviet veto.

The decision had been taken because the Security Council discussions had shown that agreement on the selection of a Governor for Trieste was impossible, and because abundant evidence showed that the Yugoslav zcine of Trieste had been completely transformed in character, and had been virtually incorporated into Yugoslavia by procedures which did not respect the desire expressed by the Powers to give an independent and democratic status to the territory. In these circumstances, said the State Department, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States had concluded that the present settlement could not guarantee the preservation of the basic rights’ and interests of the people of the Free Territory. *

Diplomats in Washington described the proposal as among the shrewdest moves yet made to try to help the anti-Communist forces in Italy to win the April election.

The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (Mr Joseph Martin) did not refer- specifically to the Trieste situation, but said that Congress might, he held continuously in session throughout the year.

Rejoicing Among The Italians

Reuter’s correspondent in Trieste says: “Italian flags waved from balconies and crowds surged through the streets singing patriotic Italian songs afte.r the announcement that Britain, France, and the United States favour* ed giving back Trieste to Italy.” In Turin the Italian Foreign Minister (Count Sforza) said that no other statement could have moved Italy so deeply. \ The Right Wing Rome newspaper, “Giornale d’ltalia,” said:. “Italians can never sufficiently appreciate this gestiire. The Prague radio declared that the Western Powers’ decision to hand Trieste back- to Italy was intended to violate one of the Italian Peace Treaty’s most- important articles. It was a provocation, intended to give Americana pretext for landing troops in Italy before the Italian election. The Belgrade radio announced the proposal briefly for the first time in its late night news broadcast on Saturday. The. disposal of Trieste was one of the most bitterly-fought issues in the \ Italian Peace Treaty. Both Jugoslavia and Italy claimed the area. The Western Powers, contended that such facts as historical and ethnical associations made it an Italian area. Jugoslavia argued similarly that it should belong to her. Russia supported Jugoslavia. . : . .. . Finally, the compromise solution of a Free Teritory was agreed upon.

The only chance it had to work was that the Western Powers and Russia should compose their differences ' so that they would be able to agree on such relatively minor issues as the selection of a Governor.

•Failing agreement between East and West, Trieste, as the southern anchor of the dividing line between the Communist-controlled lands and the Western European nations, has no future except to be constantly fought over. , Britain and the United States, each with 5000 troops, occupy the northern zone of Trieste. Jugoslavia, with the same number of troops, occupies the soulthern zone.

“Within the next fortnight the Western Powers will follow up the proposal that Trieste be returned to Italy with a statement favouring Italian trusteeship over some of Italy’s former African colonies,” reports the “New York Times” foreign correspondent, C. J. Sulzberger, in a dispatch from Paris. Quoting “reliable diplomatic sources, usually well-informed,” Sulzberger says: “It is believed that agreement in principle has already been reached that such a course will be acceptable to the West for the colonies Of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.

“Britain is refusing such agreement in the case of Libya because of her promise to the Senussi tribes of that region that never again will they be under Italian control.”