NEARING THE END

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 130, 4 June 1945, Page 6

NEARING THE END

THE TRIESTE DISPUTE

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) ' Reci 1 p.m. LONDON, June 3: The month-old dispute ovep the administration of Trieste, pending the final decisions of the peace conference, appears to be near the end, and there is a widespread . belief that an Allied military government may be functioning within a week, says the Trieste correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain. It is obvious that negotiations on the remaining points have reached a> deci^ sive stage, he says. 'The latest discussions are centred on Marshal Tito's desire to keep some of his units in the city under Allied command,. and .also the Yugoslav request for representation in the military government and the question whether the : Committee of National "Liberation shall be used by the administration. In addition to these political questions; a number of purely military problems are involved* including the line of demarcation between the troops and means of. supply and communications. It can now be disclosed that FieldMarshal Alexander has been in this area for several days. The belief that the end^ df tl^e controversy is imminent is given additional credence by the almost complete cutting off of correspondents from sources :of information at corps and army headquarters. The relations between the Yugoslav troops and those of Field-Marshal' Alexander are excellent. Reuters Trieste correspondent reports that Marshal Tito's men are I rounding up an average of 10 Germans a day in the hills and countryside around Trieste. Some' Germans are still in, uniform and others are wearing peasant ciothes, though they arej still carrying arms. A Yugoslav offi-j cer said that the Germans in most cases throw down their' arms and surrender as. soon as Marshal Tito's men approach. It is also believed that many' German soldiers are living in private houses, some having been befriended by women. GERMAN DAMAGE IN FIUME. The Germans' almost completely wrecked the port facilities at Fiume between April 21 and May 2, states Reuters Trieste correspondent. Divebombers dropped 5001b bombs 20 feet apart along the entire waterfront, and these bombs were later exploded by time-fuse. For ten days the town was shaken by explosions and lit up by fires in warehouses adjoining the harbour. There are a few cranes left. Italian experts estimate that it will take two years to rebuild the port.