Office of the Historian

860h.00/11–1945: Telegram

The Ambassador in Yugoslavia (Patterson) to the Secretary of State

Belgrade, November 19, 1945.
[Received November 19—11:45 p.m.]

674. Following is Embassy translation of note from Marshal Tito dated November 17, received 19th: This is for limited distribution.

“Your Excellency: Referring to the note you handed over to me November 6, 1945, please submit to the Government of the United States of America my answer as follows:

1.
At the suggestion of the chiefs of the three big powers—Great Britain, America and the Soviet Union—in connection with the Yalta Conference we have started immediately to execute the agreement made between me as the representative of the National Committee of Liberation of Yugoslavia and Mr. Ivan Subasic as representative of the Royal Government in London.
a.
On the basis of the agreement a common government has been formed from the members of the National Committee of Liberation of Yugoslavia and members of the Royal Government of Subasic.
b.
The Avnoj (anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia) has been extended not only with the members of Parliament of 1932, as it was suggested, but also from all the democratic parties [Page 1287] and groups, so that 124 new representatives entered the extended Parliament.
c.
The extended Parliament has decreed whole series of democratic laws, among which also the electoral law, with a tremendous majority of votes, over 400 votes against 14 votes of the opposition, and some of the laws were adopted unanimously.
d.
The elections for the Constituent Assembly have been announced for November 11, 1945, for which all the preparations were made in a perfect order in harmony with the laws which has been fully confirmed by the elections themselves.
2.
From the above it is clearly seen that the agreement between me and Subasic and the recommendations of the Yalta Conference have been fully executed and we cannot accept the objections of the note which are lacking real base.
3.
The fact that Subasic and Sutej left the government of their own free will is purely their own personal matter which in no way effects the fact that the agreements have been fully executed. The more so, as this was not an agreement between me and Subasic, but between the National Committee and Royal Government of Subasic, the majority of which stayed in the government, because they do not share the opinion of Subasic and Sutej. Accordingly, the agreement is not tied to certain persons, nor can it be identified with them.
4.
The so-called opposition had all the chances to participate in the elections, but in the last moment they quit purely for reasons of speculation.
5.
For the purpose of safeguarding the strict secrecy of the elections due to the abstinence of the opposition Parliament has introduced an amendment to the electional law to put up a separate box without ticket for all those to vote who are against the ticket of the National Front.

Declaring herewith in the name of my government, on the basis of the above mentioned, that we consider all our obligations as fulfilled and we think that also the Allied Governments are free of their obligations they considered they had in regard to the peoples of [Yugoslavia?], which is best proved by the results of the election of November 11 where the people in perfect freedom by a tremendous majority have expressed their confidence to the government, which [I?] have the honour to be Premier of, and to the National Front.

Also on this occasion I want to assure Your Excellency of the sentiments of my respect. Premier of the Ministerial Council and Action [Acting?] Minister of Foreign Affairs Marshal of Yugoslavia (signed) Josip Broz Tito.”

Patterson