875.01/9–1444: Telegram
The Secretary of State to Mr. Alexander C. Kirk, Political Adviser, Allied Force Headquarters at Caserta
151. Representatives of the various Albanian groups and elements in the United States have expressed to the Department their very grave fears that withdrawal of German forces from Albania will be the signal for civil war between the LNC and the Kupi or nationalist forces in that country. The Department also has felt some anxiety in this regard, but has supposed that, in as much as the establishment and maintenance of order in that area is undoubtedly a matter of major preoccupation for the Allied Command in that theater, this [Page 278] contingency has been long foreseen and plans laid down to prevent extensive hostilities among the Albanians.
We should be interested in having, however, any information you or your representatives in Bari may be able to obtain with regard to the disposition of the Albanian forces to attack each other once the Germans are out of the war or the prospects of a truce or other modus vivendi being arrived at promptly upon German departure in order to avoid internal warfare. It has been suggested, for example, that this purpose might be served if at the time of German evacuation the American and British Governments were, through the Allied Commander or by other means, to call upon the rival factions to observe a “freezing” of territorial authority, each faction undertaking not to seek to extend its area of control by force of arms.
From your 391 September 1430 we suppose the whole subject will be thoroughly reviewed by the BAF policy committee after the arrival of the BLOs from the Kupi camp. Please ask Norden31 for full reports on whatever political plans for Albania may then be discussed.
Sent to AmPolAd (Caserta); repeated to London and Cairo (AmEmBalk).
- Not printed; this telegram informed the Department that the Balkan Air Force had ordered two of the British Liaison Officers with Kupi to report to Bari for discussions (875.01/9–1444).↩
- Carl F. Norden, Foreign Service Officer in the office of the U.S. Political Adviser on the Staff of the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater.↩