760H.68/6–2245: Telegram
Mr. Alexander C. Kirk, Political Adviser to the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater, to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:50 p.m.]
2713. Our 2634, June 15.16 The view is now held at AFHQ that concentration of troops under Yugo Army at Skolpje is not altogether alarming as resources of this area are adequate for provisioning and questering of these forces as opposed to obvious difficulties which would be encountered if all Yugo formations had been assembled in NW Yugo.
A certain amt of pol and nationalistic agitation has, however, occurred in which demands for annexation of territory within Greek Macedonia and protection against Zervas17 terrorist forces have been expressed. It is felt by competent authorities at AFHQ that Yugo concentration in Macedonia should not be regarded for present as sinister. The availability of these considerable forces for action against Greece should not be altogether discounted in view of complexities of confusing pol situation in that area and it is likewise felt that in Albania where main locus of friction appears to be the Greek claims for Epirus, there presumably seems to be no basis for likelihood of imminent hostilities. No definite info has been received at AFHQ as to where first [Page 319] Bulgarian Army will concentrate but at present only Bulgarian guards are reported on Macedonian frontier with six Russian divisions south of Balkan mountains.
[Mr. John Sofianopoulos, the Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs, visited Washington upon his departure from the San Francisco Conference. On July 5 he called on President Truman; for the statement issued by the President concerning their conversation, see Department of State Bulletin, July 8, 1945, page 69. Acting Secretary of State Grew received Mr. Sofianopoulos on July 9; the Greek Foreign Minister talked “at length about Greece’s territorial problems” and about the hope of the Greek Government that the United States would not recognize the Hoxha regime in Albania. For another aspect of this conversation concerning Greek economic problems, see page 228.]
- Not printed.↩
- Gen. Napoleon Zervas, commander of EDES (Ellenikos Demokratikos Ethnikos Syndesmos, the National Republican Greek League), a Greek resistance organization operating in northwest Greece during the years of the German occupation, and which had successfully resisted ELAS penetration into that area.↩