860H.01/943: Telegram
The Consul General at Naples (Brandt) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 20—5:48 p.m.]
248. From Murphy. According to Brigadier Fitzroy Maclean who arrived from Vis last evening Josef Broz-Tito will not be able to visit General Wilson just now. Maclean brought with him a letter from Tito explaining that it would be most difficult for him to absent himself at the moment but that he would be glad to send his Chief of Staff. Tito’s first suggestion to Maclean apparently was that he did not feel well but Maclean advised him that such an excuse would not be good enough. Tito according to Maclean at first was delighted with idea of coming over to visit Commander-in-Chief but when he learned that King Peter would be here he changed his mind. Maclean [Page 1382] believes Tito thought that some of his supporters would thoroughly disapprove his meeting with the King and that even if he came over here at a time when the King also present even if they did not actually meet the news would get around and effect on Tito’s followers would be the same.
Maclean reports that Tito and Subasic reached substantial agreement some of which has been reduced to writing and I hope to obtain a copy.
The question of the monarchy under this agreement is to be deferred until after Yugoslavia’s liberation. No appointments to the government are to be made without Tito’s approval and Tito will have representatives in the Council of Ministers but will not himself actually be a member of the Council. Tito will retain command of the forces including remnants of the Yugoslavian Navy.
Subasic who is due here this afternoon will make his report of these negotiations to the King. I gather that the King is expected to approve the plan (I doubt that he will be permitted to disapprove) but I also believe that King and his supporters entertain small doubt regarding Tito’s intentions concerning the monarchy. There is some intimation that sooner or later conflict is bound to develop and that present stage is one of jockeying for position pending the German defeat.
King and Subasic will return to London very shortly.
Repeated to Cairo for MacVeagh. [Murphy.]