ZONE VIOLATION: BRITISH NOTE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24959, 21 August 1946, Page 7

ZONE VIOLATION: BRITISH NOTE

Both Britain and the United States have sent Notes to the Jugoslav Government protesting strongly against the illegal entry of Jugolsav troops into the Allied zone in the Trieste region. The American Note refers to an incident on July 12, when a Jugoslav patrol is alleged to have fired on American troops, who returned the fire, killing two Jugoslavs. Both Notes complain of hostile and provocative actions by Jugoslavs in the Allied zone, and complain that the Jugoslavs have been trying to discredit tfap Allied administration. The British Note protests “in the Strongest terms against the unauthorised entry of Jugoslav forces into the zone of Venezia Giulia,” and also against the hostile attitude of Jugoslav troops who opened fire without provocation against Allied troops on July 12 and 13. The Note says: “Late on the evening of August 14 the Jugoslav Government delivered to the British Embassy a Note containing offensive allegations against the Allied Military Government, all of which appeared in the Belgrade newspapers on August 15 before the British representative had even seen it.

“The British Government is aware that it is the policy of the Jugoslav Government to do its utmost to discredit the British Government and the British and American forces at Trieste,” continues the Note. “The Jugoslav Note on August 14 was sent with this purpose. Therefore the British Government is not surprised at the extravagance of the terms or the clearly tendentious character of the Hany charges.” After promising a full inquiry into

Jugoslav charges and a reply from the British Government, “which, of course, will not be published until the Jugoslav Government receives it,” the British Note says that the Government desires to correct the implication in the Jugoslav Note that Britain failed to reply to previous Jugoslav demarches on the subject.

The Note then reveals the text of the British Note of May 20, which said that the Jugoslav Note of March 27 was the last of a series of unwarranted protests by the Jugoslav Government accompanied by anti-Allied propaganda ‘‘culminating in wholly unfounded charges by Marshal Broz in a speech on April 1 that 12 trains with 70 trucks of armed Fascists from Italy had gone to Trieste and Gorizia with the approval of the Allied Military Government.”

The British Note goes on to say that in spite of British and American efforts to ensure impartiality the British and American Governments “have not received from the Jugoslav Government the co-operation which could be expected from an ally. “On the contrary, the Jugoslav Government, by every means, has encouraged the pro-Jugoslav population of the Trieste zone to obstruct the Allied Military Government. “The British and American Governments are forced to conclude that Jugoslav officials within Jugoslavia encouraged and directed the provocative activities of pro-Jugoslav organisations in Zone A. The British and American Governments require to be informed at the earliest opportunity whether such officials acted with the knowledge and authority of the Jugoslav Government.”