TENSION IN TRIESTE

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27169, 13 October 1953, Page 9

TENSION IN TRIESTE

New Warning By Tito (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) < Re %? LONDON, October 12. The Irieste correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph said today that Marshal Tito warned yesterday that his forces would march into Zone A of Trieste “the moment an Italian soldier sets foot in it.” He appealed to Britain and America to revoke their decision to hand over the administration of the zone to Italy. I hope and believe that in spite of the present occurrences common sense will triumph and that a way out will be found, he added. Meanwhile, tactical reinforcements had been arriving in the Jugoslav-occupied Zone B. Infantry patrols yesterday set up machine-gun posts, and tanks parked ostentatiously near the demarcation line. Leave was cancelled for all Jugoslav military personnel. The Jugoslav Army appears to have taken over complete control from the civil authorities in Zone B. The main crossing points are still closed on the Jugoslav side. Trieste remains calm. Although Italian flags are out in Trieste, there is nowhere any sign of popular enthusiasm over “returning to the Fatherland.” In an atmosphere of political uncertainty, the Trieste Independent Party has begun propaganda on a clandestine radio transmitter calling on the people “to continue the struggle for a free and undivided territory.”

The Daily Express” quoted the Belgrade Radio as saying that Tito supporters in Trieste had cabled Mr Malenkov as well as Sir Winston Churchill and Mr Eisenhower, protesting at the planned entry of Italian troops.

Marshal Tito has made it plain that a crisis will be reached, if at all, after British and American garrisons have evacuated their fighting units. These should be out well before the 90-day period on which the Trieste evacuation plans are based. By the second half of November all except rear parties and some Allied civilian personnel will probably have left.

By then, it seems, Marshal Tito hopes he will have persuaded Italy to leave Zone A as a demilitarised area, and to administer it without ruling it.