740.00119 Control (Italy)/5–1445: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Yugoslavia (Patterson)
86. After concerting with Stevenson,46 present urgently to Yugoslav Government following note, text of which has for security reasons been scrambled but each sentence of which is numbered in accordance with its proper sequence:47
“The question of Venezia Giulia is only one of the many territorial problems in Europe to be solved in the general peace settlement. The doctrine of solution by conquest and by unilateral proclamation of sovereignty through occupation, the method used by the enemy with such tragic consequenes, has been definitely and solemnly repudiated by the Allied Governments participating in this war. This agreement to work together to seek an orderly and just solution of territorial problems is one of the cardinal principles for which the peoples of the United Nations have made their tremendous sacrifice to attain a just and lasting peace. It is one of the cornerstones on which their representatives, with the approbation of world public opinion, are now at work to build a system of world security.
The plan of Allied Military Government for Venezia Giulia was adopted precisely to achieve a peaceful and lasting solution of a problem of admitted complexities. It is designed to safeguard the interests of the peoples involved. Its implementation, while assuring to the military forces of the Allied Governments the means of carrying on their further tasks in enemy territory, would bring no prejudice to Yugoslav claims in the final settlement.
With these considerations in mind, and in view of the previous general agreement of the Yugoslav Government to the plans proposed for this region, my Government has instructed me to inform you that it expects that the Yugoslav Government will immediately agree to the control by the Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean of the region which must include Trieste, Gorizia, Monfalcone and Pola, the lines of communication through Gorizia and Monfalcone to Austria, and an area sufficiently to the east of the line to permit proper administrative control, and issue appropriate instructions to the Yugoslav forces in the region in question to cooperate with the Allied commanders in the establishment of military government in that area under the authority of the Allied Commander.
I have been instructed to report most urgently to my Government whether the Yugoslav Government is prepared immediately to acquiesce in the foregoing.”
Your British colleague has been instructed to keep in step with you in every stage, whether in oral or written representations.
[Page 1162]Moscow is instructed herewith to inform in concert with the British Ambassador the Soviet Government of the above representation to the Yugoslav Government.
Repeated to Rome and Moscow.