740.00119 EW/8–3144: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 31—8 p.m.]
7103. In accordance with suggestion contained in last paragraph of Department’s 6866 August 26, midnight, and since British had instructed their Ambassador to Yugoslav Government in London45 to invite that Government to assent to the Bulgarian armistice terms, I requested Mr. Schoenfeld46 to act jointly with Stevenson in taking up the question with Dr. Subasić.47 Schoenfeld and Stevenson called on Subasić at noon yesterday, presenting identic drafts of the terms as amended in Department’s 6930, August 29. Schoenfeld has given me the following report of that interview:
“Stevenson said British and United States Governments desired to make these terms known to Yugoslav Government before signature and to request its assent to them. He added that it was hoped Yugoslav Government would feel terms were wide enough to meet its wishes and he pointed out any change would involve delays which it was desirable to avoid in view of the urgency of the matter.
Subasić said he would submit the terms to Yugoslav Cabinet and would reply today. He advanced the suggestion that as a matter of prestige a Yugoslav representative might be present at the signing. Stevenson did not commit himself on this point but expressed hope that Yugoslav Government would advance the idea merely as a suggestion and not as a condition.”
Yesterday evening Schoenfeld received from Subasić a memorandum explaining in considerable detail the Yugoslav point of view. Subasić suggests including provisions for cancellation of Bulgarian laws annexing Yugoslav territory, supplemented by a formal declaration renouncing all aspiration to possess Yugoslav territory, abolition of Bulgarian ecclesiastic jurisdiction over Yugoslav territory and withdrawal of Bulgarian ecclesiastical personnel. The memorandum also stated that the Yugoslav Government considers it of great importance that a Yugoslav representative should take part in the signing of the armistice with Bulgaria and that the Yugoslav Government had designated as their representative Dr. Milan Gavrilović,48 Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, now in Cairo, who had been instructed to contact the competent Allied authorities.
[Page 385]Yugoslav Government also requests that “representatives of the kingdom of Yugoslavia should be admitted to the armistice commission and all other commissions which will be organized to control or deal with the execution of the armistice terms concerning Bulgaria”.
Rybar49 of Yugoslav Foreign Office delivered foregoing memorandum at Schoenfeld’s office during latter’s absence at Polish Foreign Office late yesterday. He left word that points raised were “desiderata” and “not conditions”. Stevenson told Schoenfeld that when Rybar delivered similar memorandum to him, Rybar stated that points raised “were not conditions of acceptance but expressions of earnest desire” and the most important thing was that the Yugoslav representative should actually sign. It would otherwise be very embarrassing for the Government. Rybar added that the Yugoslav Government was very upset about the omission of the religious point.
I feel, and Mr. Schoenfeld agrees with me, that most of these requests are unsuitable for inclusion in the armistice. As explained in last part of my 7086, August 31,50 the question of the signatures might be settled most conveniently through empowering Allied military representatives to sign.
- R. C. Skrine Stevenson.↩
- Rudolf E. Schoenfeld, Counselor of Embassy to the Governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Norway, and Poland in Exile at London.↩
- Ivan Subasić, Yugoslav Prime Minister.↩
- Dr. Stoyan Gavrilović was Yugoslav Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at Cairo, while Dr. Milan Gavrilović was a former Minister of Justice in the Yugoslav Government in Exile.↩
- Vladimir Rybar, Yugoslav Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs at London.↩
- Not printed.↩