860H.01/829: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)
1355. Your 2240, April 11.73 The Department approves a reply to the Yugoslav Committee along the lines you have suggested.
[Page 1362]For your background information, the relations of this Government with the Partisans have been kept on a purely military basis in accordance with the principle of supporting all resistance forces in Yugoslavia actively engaged against the enemy. The Committee which has communicated with you may wish to give emphasis to its military character but since it cannot expect to engage in military operations it must be considered as motivated by political considerations. While we are conscious of the social forces at work within Yugoslavia and of the imperfections of the groups now in control of the Government in exile, we recognize only that Government as the authority conducting Yugoslavia’s international relations.
- Not printed; it reported the formation among Yugoslav war prisoner escapees in Switzerland of a “Committee Abroad of National Yugoslav Liberation”, which drew up a declaration of fidelity to Tito and then petitioned the American and British Ministers in Switzerland for recognition and joint protection. The British Minister, Clifford J. Norton, refused to deal with the group on the grounds that his Government still recognized the Royal Yugoslav Government, and the American Minister, Leland Harrison, proposed to do likewise. (860H.01/829)↩