“AN ELECTION TRICK”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26731, 29 March 1948, Page 5

“AN ELECTION TRICK”

CEDING OF TRIESTE TO ITALY MARSHAL TITO’S COMMENT ON PROPOSAL TRIESTE, Mar. 26. The Yugoslavs declined to set a date for the next meeting when representatives of Trieste’s two zones met yesterday At the first of the regular fortnightly meetings for discussing interzonal affairs since the Western Powers proposed the return of Trieste to Italy, British and American officials said the Yugoslavs gave a “frigid” reception, and no work was accomplished. In Belgrade Marshal Tito, in a speech described the three-Power proposal to cede Trieste to Italy as “an election trick aimed at preventing the democratic forces in Italy defending in a solid mass their liberty and independence. Yugoslavs would always be prepared to solve amicably all issues arising between the two countries.” The Rome correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says Italian police used tear-gas bombs in Milan yesterday to disperse demonstrators who came to blows over the Trieste question. The trouble started when crowds peacefully demonstrating in favour of Trieste’s return to Italy were interrupted by the arrival of lorry loads of Communists, who staged a counterdemonstration. The Comunists seized British, American, and French newspapers from nearby kiosks, and burned them in the streets.