860H.01/431: Telegram
The Ambassador to the Yugoslav Government in Exile ( Biddle ) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 4—6:50 p.m.]
1. Yugoslav Series. My 9, December 23, midnight10 and your 4, December 30, 6 p.m.11 Reorganization of Yugoslav Cabinet announced [Page 965] last night involves retirement of two Ministers here namely Nintchitch and Markovitch and of all four Ministers resident in New York namely, Jevtitch, Snoj, Kosanovitch and Cubrilovitch [Gavrilovitch].
All political parties continue to be represented, each party except the Croats having lost one Minister.
The difficulty in agreeing on a successor for Nintchitch has proved insuperable. The majority wanted Grol, a member of the Serb Democratic Party and a moderate, to succeed him as Foreign Minister but the Pan-Serb elements could not be reconciled to his appointment. Prime Minister Jovanovitch has therefore been obliged to take over the Foreign Ministry for the time being.
This stage of the Cabinet reorganization has thus failed in its principal objective, namely, to bring the Cabinet’s character more into line with the policy outlined by King Peter on December 1.12
- Not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. iii p. 838.↩
- See telegram Yugoslav Series No. 8, December 2, 1942, from the Ambassador to the Yugoslav Government in Exile, Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. iii, p. 831.↩