BELGRADE STANDS VP TO KREMLIN STRONG JUGOSLAV RETORT TO RUSSIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 August 1949, Page 5

BELGRADE STANDS VP TO KREMLIN STRONG JUGOSLAV RETORT TO RUSSIA

BELGRADE, August 21 (Rec 11 a.m.).—The Jugoslav Government today admitted that it had conducted negotiations on Austria with Britain “behind the back” of Russia. The admission was made in the Jugoslav reply to the Russian Note of August 12, which described Marshal Tito’s Government as an “enemy and opponent of the Soviet Union.” ' The Jugoslav Note said that the Jugoslav Government was of the opinion that the “offensive tone of the Russian Note did not warrant a reply,” but added: “The Jugoslav Government, however, wants to refer to certain facts, completely distorted in the Soviet Note, for the purpose of defending history’s truth on the question of the abandonment of Slovene Carinthia.

The Note said it was not correct, as the Soviet Note alleged, that the Jugoslav Government had renounced its claims to Slovene Carinthia at a time when the Soviet Government was still supporting the Jugoslav demands. , , . The Soviet Government had consistently given the Jugoslav Government the impression that;there was practically no hope that its claims would be adopted by the Council of Foreign Ministers and Mr Molotov and Mr Vyshinsky had said they were kept on the agenda only to facilitate a positive solution of the question of German property in Austria for the Soviet Union. Soviet Demand Recalled The Jugoslav Note added that the Jugoslav Government not only had never renounced and never stopped fighting for the incorporation of Slovene Carinthia in Jugoslavia, but that it also never was willing to give in, had it not been for the Soviet Government’s demand and because, it had no other way out. The Soviet Government had not only ceased to support the Jugoslav claims for the incorporation of Slovene Carinthia but even demands for minor frontier alterations. Replying to the Soviet allegation that Jugoslavia had conducted negotiations on Austria with Britain “behind the back” of Russia, the Note admitted such negotiations, but said the approach to the Western Powers was made at the suggestion of Mr Molotov and Mr Vyshinsky. The Note said the Soviet Government had promised the Austrian Government to defend the immutability of the Austrian frontiers —a promise which could not remain unknown to the Western Powers—and then thrust the Jugoslav Government towards those very Powers with its aim of reaching a contrary result.

Front-page News The Jugoslav Note, which was front-page news in all the Belgrade newspapers, added: “The enemy attitude of the Russian Government is known from the series of Russian Government acts towards Jugoslavia. That attitude is merely a consequence of the campaign which the Russian Government is conducting, and which is not only against the interests of Socialist Jugoslavia but damaging to the entire anti-imperial-istic world democratic front.”