860h.00/6–845
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Southern European Affairs (Huston)1
| Participants: | Assistant Secrteary Holmes: Mr. Huston (SE): Mr. … and Mr. ….1a |
Mr. … and Mr. … [in] the staff of our Embassy to Yugoslavia while that Mission was established in London, was [were] received by Assistant Secretary Holmes at 4:00 p.m. yesterday, June 7, to enable Mr. … to give an account of his conversations with Dr. Ivan Subasic, Yugoslav Foreign Minister, during the San Francisco conference. Mr. … not only is a close friend of Subasic but managed while he was in London to have rather intimate contacts with King Peter and other Yugoslav personalities there.
Some of the main points contained in Mr. …’s narration were:
- (1)
- On the occasion of Dr. Subasic’s visit to Moscow with Tito, Mr. Stalin said, when the suggestion was made that the British “might cause trouble” in the Carinthia and Venezia Giulia areas, that “if the British start interfering with us there, we will start interfering with them.”
- (2)
- When Mr. Molotov questioned Dr. Subasic regarding the situation in Yugoslavia, the latter replied: “when the people look for the brains of Yugoslavia, they turn toward Moscow; when they look for the arms of Yugoslavia, they also look toward Moscow.” Molotov replied that the Soviet Government would like to help Yugoslavia but there were limitations on what could be done. “We ourselves,” he said, “will have to look to the West—we will ask about ten billion dollars.”
- (3)
- At the San Francisco conference, Dr. Subasic supported Mr. Molotov at every stage. There was one exception, when Dr. Subasic did not think that the rotating presidency was sufficiently important for him to get up and make a speech in support of Molotov’s proposal, and Mr. Molotov subsequently called him to task for it.
- (4)
- The Yugoslav Minister of Finance, Sreten Zujovic, was probably sent to San Francisco with the Yugoslav delegation in order to “keep on eye on” Subasic.
- (5)
- In Belgrade, Subasic is weak. He does not even have anything to say about the members of the Foreign Office staff. Grol and Sutej likewise are unable to do much. Everything is in the hands of Tito and his favored henchmen, such as Kardelj (Deputy Premier) and [Page 1238] Djilas (Minister for Montenegro) both of whom are violent communists.
- (6)
- Despite the friction in Yugoslavia, Dr. Subasic does not believe that there will be civil war as the country is “too weak” to bring forth the effort required for active civil strife.
- (7)
- Although he, as a patriot, would like to see Trieste given to Yugoslavia, Dr. Subasic feels that the Venezia Giulia affair has been “a bad thing for the country.”
- (8)
- Dr. Subasic was quite ill at San Francisco and his diabetes was in an acute stage, but he benefited greatly from the excellent care he was given there.