740.00119 Control (Italy)/2–2745: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to Mr. Alexander C. Kirk, Political Adviser to the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater, at Caserta
Washington
, February
28, 1945—6 p.m.
179. Your 716 February 26, mid; 738 February 27 mid.57
- 1.
- We should obtain agreement by Tito as outlined in your 680, February 24, noon, that throughout the entire compartment of Venezia Giulia he will place his civilian administrative machinery under AMG and his occupational forces under SACMED58 as Military Governor.
- 2.
- While we would accept Yugoslav civil administration in purely Slovene localities under the above agreement, no commitment should be made to Tito concerning maintenance of his administration in the predominantly Italian localities in the western part of the Istrian peninsula and the compartment.
- 3.
- Obviously if AMG is to function in fact as well as in name its officers must, after their arrival, have the final authority of establishing and controlling local administrations and their composition. This right should be clearly safeguarded.
- 4.
- We consequently see no necessity for and are therefore unwilling to agree to the establishment of a provisional line of demarcation such as the British have suggested between JCNL59 and AMG administrative territory.
- 5.
- We intend to inform the British and Soviet Governments of this position.
- 6.
- With reference to paragraph number 2, you will have observed that the British are much more inclined than we have been to accept the JCNL’s own estimate of its strength and extent in the area in question, and we hope that AFHQ60 has made a critical examination of the situation. In making this observation we have in mind the persistent desire of the British to go as far as possible, for political reasons, in meeting whatever position the JCNL has chosen to take in recent months.
Grew