860H.00/14214/8

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)

The Ambassador of Yugoslavia called to see me this morning and left with me the documents attached herewith,46 which are self-explanatory. They all have to do with the present status of General Mihailovich and the increasing evidences of Soviet-inspired propaganda for the purpose of diminishing the prestige of General Mihailovich and in order to make it appear that the real resistance now going on in Yugoslavia is due to the “Partisans” and not to the forces under the command of General Mihailovich.

The Ambassador alleges that the immediate purpose of this propaganda is to try to force the Allied Governments, when the time comes to undertake an invasion of Yugoslavia, to deal with the commanding forces of the Partisans rather than with the legitimate authorities under the control of General Mihailovich.

The Ambassador stated that the British Eighth Army, under the command of General Alexander,47 has five liaison officers directly in daily contact with General Mihailovich who are reporting every day to the British high command the resistance movements undertaken by General Mihailovich. He also stated that the British are in continuous contact with these forces by submarine and that the supplies in the possession of General Mihailovich’s forces come in part from North Africa by means of submarine. He insists that this Government must be in full possession of these facts and that it would, therefore, be in the highest degree useful, from the standpoint of the Government of Yugoslavia, if the President or the Secretary of State, at a press conference, could make some statement with regard to the effective military resistance kept up for so long a time and under such desperately difficult circumstances by General Mihailovich—a statement along the lines of those recently made by Mr. Eden in London and by General Alexander through a message which he sent to General Mihailovich.

I told the Ambassador we would give the most friendly consideration to the points which he had raised.

S[umner] W[elles]
  1. Not printed.
  2. Gen. Sir Harold R. L. Alexander, Commander in Chief of the British Forces In the Middle East.