860H.01/11–1544: Telegram
The United States Political Adviser on the Staff of the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater (Kirk), to the Secretary of State
[Received November 16—12:21 p.m.]
1323. British Resident Minister stated yesterday that he had been instructed by the Foreign Office to consult me with regard to proposal by the British Government for the evacuation of General Mihailovic from Yugoslavia. According to Macmillan the British Government felt that while Mihailovic should not be treated as a national hero there was considerable feeling that he should be rescued from Yugoslavia and placed in honorable forced residence abroad. The Foreign Office felt, however, that any action taken in this matter should be taken jointly with United States. Macmillan then asked whether this office would be willing to request OSS to evacuate Mihailovic and arrange his early departure for the United States. He stated that he thought that Mihailovic would be much happier living in the United States than elsewhere as there were so many Serbs who were residing in America. He also made reference to our generosity (sic) in case of Knezevitch and Todorovic, Mihailovic supporters who returned to United States last week.
We pointed out to Macmillan that we could understand the desire of the British Government to do something with regard to Mihailovic’s present situation in view of the fact that he had rendered valuable services to the British war effort in the past and as the British Broadcasting Corporation had so clearly stated during 1941 and 1942 he kept alive opposition to nazism in Yugoslavia. We said that although we had no instructions with regard to this matter it was obvious that serious complications confronted the United States Government in an undertaking to evacuate Mihailovic or to transport him to the United States for future residence.…
He then stated that he would telegraph to the Foreign Office and recommend that if the Foreign Office felt strongly that Mihailovic should be evacuated preferably with United States participation, it should take up the matter through Halifax88 in Washington. He added he would report to Foreign Office our reactions and would point out that the British Government would have to envisage Mihailovic’s honorable forced residence in Malta, Egypt, or somewhere else in the British Empire at British expense.
- Viscount Halifax. British Ambassador in the United States.↩