860H.01/11–244: Airgram
The United States Political Adviser on the Staff of the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater (Kirk), to the Secretary of State
[Received November 14—9 a.m.]
A–45. Brigadier Maclean has reported that on October 27, Tito, speaking at the Victory Parade outside Belgrade, expressed his gratitude to the Allies who had made possible the victory. Great Britain and America during the past year had with the help of their glorious air forces sent the Partisans arms and ammunition and everything desired. The Red Army was now joining in the liberation of Yugoslav [Page 1417] Territory and it was the duty of YANL76 not only to disable but together with their Allies to join in wiping out the enemy in his own country.
Tito said in addition that some people both in Yugoslavia and abroad were counting on the British in Yugoslavia. But they were mistaken. The Partisans were willing to make their peace with any Yugoslav who would henceforth join them whole-heartedly in the work of reconstruction. They would, however, let no one deprive them of the fruits of their victory and at all costs would preserve the new federal democratic Yugoslavia which they had founded. They would be the puppets of no one, for they had won the right to full independence and to take part on equal terms with their great Allies in building a new and happier Europe.
Maclean reported further that the newspaper Politika is now appearing daily under the management of Dr. Ribnikar, President of AVNOJ,77 and its original owner. In the issue of October 29 there was an article by Ribnikar of which the concluding paragraph is significant. Ribnikar wrote that the new federal and democratic Yugoslavia existed already both de facto and de jure and that with the old Yugoslavia it had nothing in common. All connections with the past had been severed and there was no continuity between them. The AVNOJ resolutions of last year78 had established the new Yugoslavia once and for all. These resolutions represented the will of the people. No one could or would dispute the right of the Yugoslav people to self-determination after all they had suffered. Their great Allies themselves had proclaimed this.
Repeated to London for Schoenfeld.