860h.00/11–1945: Telegram
The Ambassador in Yugoslavia (Patterson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 20—7:10 a.m.]
675. Stevenson has shown us British draft of press statement for release with publication of exchange of notes with Tito. As worded, [Page 1288] statement read as though it were a whitewash of methods and conduct of recent elections. We are by no means prepared to accept as proved that elections show majority of people support this regime. Our view is that considering terroristic methods used by regime prior to elections, it is remarkable that such a large proportion of the people dared express their disapproval either by abstaining or by dropping their rubber balls in the blank ballot box.
Complete election returns have not yet been published and published figures continue to be contradictory and confusing. Govt press has stated “adding mistakes exist but they can on [no?] account change the results”. Independent paper Novosti November 18 publishes results of election in Serbia as compiled from figures published by official press. Results show that 65.51% of the registered voters voted for National Front candidates.
We do not believe that any press release now issued by US should endorse this regime or be subject to the interpretation that we are ready to condone its methods. We recommend that it indicate unequivocably that we are not convinced that civil liberties exist in Yugoslavia and that we are not prepared to give the govt moral or economic support until they do.