860H.01/608: Telegram
The Ambassador to the Yugoslav Government in Exile (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 3, 1944—8:51 a.m.]
19. [Yugoslav Series.] I am informed by the Yugoslav Prime Minister that the Russian reaction to his proposals for a Yugoslav-Soviet agreement (see my telegram No. 16 [126?] Greek Series, December 8, 6 [8?] p.m.84) has been to express interest in general but to point out that it would first be advisable for the Yugoslav Government to compose the factional differences now existing within the country. Both Mr. Puritch and the British Ambassador have made the comment to me that this may be interpreted as a hint to the government to secure a rapprochement with the Partisans. Meanwhile a request from [Page 1041] Mihailovich that the British mediate between him and Tito has been turned down by the British Foreign Office as “death bed repentance,” its telegram in this connection which I have seen adding that it sees no reason why a move toward a rapprochement cannot be made by Mihailovich direct. The Ambassador thinks that two Serbian officers who he tells me recently took an unauthorized flight from Bari in a South African plane in order to join Mihailovich may have carried a message from the King or his Government advising the War Minister to make some move of this sort but he also commented to me that while some of the subordinate Chetniks might possibly do this it is an impossibility for Mihailovich personally since “they would cut his throat”.
Mihailovich has not yet carried out the assignment referred to in my No. 6, Yugoslav Series, December 16, 7 p.m., and the deadline was December 29. But he continues to make promises in this connection and at the instance of Brigadier Armstrong, liaison officer at his headquarters, NHO [who?] appears to be as pro-Mihailovich as MacLean is anti. The British are giving him a few weeks additional grace before coming to any open decision affecting his status. Their practical assistance to him, however, is now virtually nil.
- Not printed.↩