THREAT SEEN TO TRIESTE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27132, 31 August 1953, Page 9

THREAT SEEN TO TRIESTE

Italian Fears Of

Jugoslav Aims

(N.Z. Press Association-Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) ROME, August 2% The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Guiseppe today held an emergency meeting with his Defence* Minister, the Chief of the General Staff and seniofj Foreign Office officials to plan Italy’s reaction to th< threatened Jugoslav annexation of Zone B of Trieste,

He also summoned the British Ambassador and the United States and French Charges d’Affaires to warm them? of “the disastrous effect on Italian public opinion” of an/ move by Marshal Tito against the small Adriatic coastal strip.

This sudden flurry of diplomatic activity was set off by a report last night by the Jugoslav news agency, Jugopress, that Jugoslavia had lost patience with Italy and might annex Zone B. The report added that this might be Jugoslavia’s reaction to “the cold-blooded annexation by Italy of Zone A. [Last year the British and American Occupation authorities in Zone A invited Italy to take part in the administration of the zone].

Official circles in Rome said that the threat published by the Jugoslav agency coincided with other moves which were seen as marking a sudden, hardening of the Jugoslav Government’s attitude on Trieste.

The chief of these was a big gathering of Marshal Tito’s former partisan forces, which is being organised in the frontier town of Gorizia. It has been announced that Marshal Tito himself will address the gathering. Since the vast majority of Italians consider Gorizia an Italian town this is taken in Rome to be a deliberate Jugoslav gesture of hostility. The Italian and Jugoslav frontier runs through a section of the town. Italy accepted the frontier line in the 1947 Peace Treaty. Trieste is in two zones, Zone A being under Allied and Italian control, and Zone B, which is under Jugoslav military government. Official Italian spokesmen blamed Britain and the United States for being partly responsible for the toughening Jugoslav attitude. They said that Atlantic solidarity should have induced those two Powers to “keep Italy’s interests in mind” when endeavouring to detach Marshal Tito definitely from Moscow. They said that Italy still considers as binding the declaration made jointly by the United States, Britain and France in March, 1948, that the whole Trieste territory, including the Jugoslav Zone, should be returned to Italy. It is understood that Mr Pella, who is also Foreign Minister for Italy, repeated Italy’s stand today to representatives of the three Powers. Official sources in Belgrade admitted today that the Jugoslav attitude towards Trieste was stiffening, but they said that no move which would involve dispute with the Western Powers was at present contemplated.