860H.01/589: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 23—5:50 p.m.]
8926. The Embassy this morning asked the Foreign Office for the latest Yugoslav developments. With reference to the Embassy’s 8542, December 8, 9 p.m.,78 the Foreign Office said that its previous exploration of the idea of persuading King Peter to get rid of Mihailović is now defunct as a result of Tito’s recent declaration. Eden had not [Page 1036] approved the idea prior to Tito’s statements and consequently it is not believed that the British Embassy in Washington conveyed the details of the suggested action to the Department. The most recent declaration of Tito, in which he is alleged to have attacked the monarchy, has been considerably garbled in the newspaper accounts. Foreign Office states that Tito had not categorically said that the monarchy must be ousted but that in his statement there was included a sentence to the effect that “in so far as the monarchy is concerned, measures must be taken to coincide with the requirements of the country”. The Foreign Office does not think this is a final closing of the door on King Peter. At the present time it is endeavoring to ascertain exactly what Tito means. If the British surmise is correct that Tito will still play ball with the King under certain circumstances, the Foreign Office says that the main objective will be to get the King and Tito together. If, on the other hand, Tito flatly refuses to have anything to do with the King, the Foreign Office says that “we will have to play along under the existing circumstances”.
Foreign Office is of the opinion that ultimately it may be necessary to have concerted action between the United States, Great Britain and the USSR so that Tito may be persuaded to cooperate with the King, as, the Foreign Office said, “the King resisted the Germans and, although ill-advised, he has done his best and we cannot throw him overboard”.
- Not printed.↩