FUTURE OF TRIESTE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 150, 11 April 1950, Page 3

FUTURE OF TRIESTE

ITALIAN SUGGESTION REJECTED V? TERRITORY HELD BY YUGOSLAVS (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) LONDON, April 10. Yugoslavia has given a hostile reception to the proposal by the Italian Foreign Minister, Count Carlo SforzA, that Yugoslavia should negotiate an economic pact and a general settlement Avith Italy. Count Sforza’s proposal, which had special reference to Trieste, Avas made in a speech in Milan on Saturday. Italy, he 'said, Avas ready for any accord Avith Yugoslavia provided that it did not touch her national honour. He also emphasised that negotiations must start Avitli “a substantial Yugoslav acceptance that the Avhole Free Territory of Trieste, 'lncluding the zone iioav occupied by Yugoslav troops, be incorporated into Italy.” “Borba,” the Yugoslav Communist Party’s newspaper, described Count Sforza’s speech as “pi'ovocative” and as reflecting “the Avell-knoAvn irredentist claims of Italian chauvinist circles.” Giving Avhat must be regarded as the official Yugoslav vieAV of Count Sforza’s proposal, the neAVSpaper said that Yugoslavia did not intend “to buy anybody’s friendship at the price of trading aAvay its legitimate interests, and, least of all, by concessions which would mean renouncing its territories and its nationals.” ■lt added that the Trieste problem Avould have to be solved by taking mutual interests into consideration, and not by intrigues Avhich had nothing in common Avith a friendly solution of the question. The diplomatic correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that the raising of the Trieste issue by Count Sforza is regarded in London as an attempt to find out lioav far Marshal Tito is prepared to go in extending his increasing economic links Avith the West into a diplomatic approvement. “Italy, it is believed, fears that next Sunday’s elections in the Yugoslav zone may be a prelude to the formal absorption of the zone into Yugoslavia. Economically, the absorption has been completed, and in most other respects it is almost an accomplished fact,” says the correspondent. i