NEW YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 304, 26 December 1945, Page 5

NEW YUGOSLAV GOVERNMENT

BRITISH RECOGNITION U.S. MAKES ITS APPROVAL CONDITIONAL London, Dec. 23. Britain recognised the new Yugoslav Republic in a Note handed to the Ambassador in London yesterday. It was in reply to a note received from Yugoslavia on December 8, declaring that Yugoslavia had established a Federative People's State in Republican form, had abolished dynasty of Kara Georgeviteh, and deprived King Peter of all rights.

The British reply says: “The Government recognises the changed constitution of Yugoslavia and assumes the new Government is accepting responsibility of existing international abligations, and that the interests and rights of British subjects in Yugoslavia will not be affected.” The United States also has extended formal recognition to lhe new Yugoslav Government, and has announced lhe appointment of Mr. Richard Patterson as Ambassador at Belgrade. At the same time the State Department has released instructions to Mr. Patterson criticising the recent Yugoslav elections as not fully free, and recalling that Yugoslavia had not honoured its pledges to extend basic freedoms to the people. The statement added: "United States wishes to make <t clear t that the establishment of diplomatic relations should not be interpreted as approval of Marshal Tito's policies."

CHETNIKS SENTENCED Recd. 6 p.m. London, Dec. 24. A Yugoslav Court sentenced to death 25 former leaders of Mikhailovitch’s Chetnik organisation, imprisoned eight and acquitted one, says the Belgrade radio. The accused, included two nuns, five monks, and a number of Catholic priests, four of whom pleaded guilty to crimes against members of the liberation movement. BRITISH DETENTION OF YUGOSLAV CHILDREN INQUIRY TO BE MADE ■ London, Dec. 23. The British Ambassador in Czechoslavakia, Mr. Philip Nichols, has promised an inquiry into a statement by Moscow radio that the British in southern Austria have detained a group of Yugoslav children returning home after a visit Io Czechoslovakia, says Reuter’s Prague correspondent. Moscow radio claimed that the children were placed in a concentration camp, from which one escaped. SERBIAN CHURCH DOES NOT OPPOSE SEPARATION FROM THE STATE London, Dec. 23. The Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church has informed the Yugoslav Government that it will not oppose the projected separation of the church from the State, but will ask the Constituent Assembly to consider its wishes regarding marriages and religious instruction.