740.00119 Control (Italy)/9–2845
The Italian Embassy to the Department of State
The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Signor De Gasperi, has addressed to Admiral Stone a letter in which he underlines the serious situation developing in Venezia Giulia, where Yugoslav authorities are organizing a so-called “plebiscite”. The American and British Ambassadors at Rome have been informed thereof.
Especially in Istria, Yugoslav propaganda agents are going from one village to the other holding fiery speeches after which they search the houses exacting written adherence to their policy from each individual inhabitant.
According to reliable information, in certain localities, after the population has refused to adhere, all circulation permits were withheld by the Yugoslav authorities; in the village of Pinguente machine guns were set up and many shots were fired to terrorize the population; in other pales curfew was ordered at 6 P.M. so that nobody could hide outside of his own home.
Individual citizens are brutalized and made to adhere often under the threat of expropriation of property and sometimes under direct threats of armed violence.
It has been ascertained that the attempt to accomplish this sort of “plebiscite” takes place also in Trieste and in all the Allied controlled zones. Naturally, the methods employed in these instances are less apparent and violent, but the citizens who are “invited” to sign in favor of “autonomous Trieste within Yugoslavia” are subjected to serious threats and blackmail should they refuse.