840.48 Refugees/5600: Telegram
The Ambassador to the Yugoslav Government in Exile (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:13 p.m.]
88. Yugos. The Foreign Office London “at the request of various Jewish bodies” has instructed its Embassy to Yugoslavia to approach Tito77 through Maclean78 with a view to obtaining his active assistance in facilitating the escape through Partisan territory to Italy and the Mediterranean area of Jews from Hungary. The Foreign Office adds that when such refugees arrive in Italy and the Middle East their care and maintenance will presumably be the responsibility of the Allied Displaced Persons Commission and MERRA and that arrangements should be made with these organizations to receive them. It concludes that “in view of the cooperation between the US [Page 1029] Government and HM’s Government over refugee questions” British Embassy should keep in contact with this Embassy.
Pursuant to this instruction a member of the British Embassy called at this office yesterday and after advising that an appropriate message is being despatched to Maclean inquired concerning the attitude of the US in regard to this project. He was informed in reply that while the Embassy is without specific instructions as to this particular endeavor, the policy of the US concerning the rescue and maintenance of refugees from Europe was set forth by the President in an Executive Order of January 22 quoted in the Department’s circular airgram of January 26, 7 p.m.79 which was shown to him.
In response to an inquiry my informant stated that no similar effort to arrange passage for refugees through Mihailovitch80 territory is possible since as the Department knows (see Yugos 48 February 25, 7 p.m.81) the Allied mission to Mihailovitch is being withdrawn.82
- Marshal Tito (Josip Broz), military leader of the Partisans, became chairman of a Committee of National Defense on December 4, 1943.↩
- Brigadier Fitzroy Hew Maclean, Commanding British Military Mission to the Yugoslav Partisans, 1943–45.↩
- See footnote 22, p. 987.↩
- Gen. Draža Mihailovic, Yugoslav Minister of Navy, War, and Air Force, and leader of the Yugoslav Nationalist guerrilla forces.↩
- Not printed.↩
- The Ambassador to the Yugoslav Government in Exile at Cairo stated (1) in telegram, 102, (Yugos), April 29, 1 p.m. (not printed), that Tito had promised his support in rescuing Hungarian Jews (840.48 Refugees/5842), and (2) in airgram No. A–19, May 19 (not printed), that the Royal Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs had instructed Yugoslav diplomatic representatives and other organizations to aid Allied bodies concerned with war refugee questions (840.48 Refugees/6069).↩