865.014/10–944
The Secretary of State to the Yugoslav Chargé (Franges)
The Secretary of State presents his compliments to the Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of Yugoslavia, and has the honor to acknowledge his Note Pov. No. 682 of October 9, 1944,64 concerning the administration of territory in northwest [northeast] Italy containing important Slavic populations. The views of the Yugoslav Government will be given careful consideration.
The Chargé d’Affaires ad interim is undoubtedly aware of the practice in Italy of extending Allied Military Government to Italian territory as soon as it is liberated from German domination. With [Page 1413] respect to areas removed from the line of combat, it has been the practice moreover to withdraw military Government and restore the territory to Italian civil administration when military conditions permit. In view of the considerable number of non-Italian peoples residing in certain frontier regions of Italy, it is contemplated that Allied Military Government will be extended to these regions up to the 1939 Italian boundaries, when German forces have been expelled from them, and that such military Government will be maintained until the question of national sovereignty of the areas involved has been finally determined.65
- Not printed: in this note, the Chargé reported the alleged inhumanity and terrorization which had characterized Italian administration of Slavic territory since the last war. His Government believed that until a definite solution of the problem of Yugoslav minorities had been reached, these territories should be allowed to administer themselves. He also included a copy of a similar protest which the Yugoslav Government had lodged with the British Government on October 6, 1944. (865.014/10–944)↩
- In a memorandum to the Under Secretary of State, the Deputy Director of the Office of European Affairs, H. Freeman Matthews, on October 25 noted that before drawing up this note: “It was necessary to consult with the British on this matter, since a similar inquiry had been made of the British Foreign Office and it seemed desirable that the replies from the two Governments should be similar in substance. Mr. Middleton of the British Embassy informed the Department yesterday that our proposed reply would be quite in line with the note which the Foreign Office will send the Yugoslav authorities in London.” (865.014/10–944)↩