Foreign Relations of the United States, 1947, Eastern Europe; The Soviet Union, Volume IV

860H.00/10–647

Memorandum of Conversation, by Bernard C. Connelly of the Division of Southern European Affairs

[Extracts]

confidential

[Washington,] October 6, 1947.

Participants:	Dr. [Miha] Krek
	Mr. Constantin Fotich, former Royal Yugoslav Ambassador
	SE–Mr. Barbour
	Mr. Connelly

Dr. Krek called October 6 by appointment made by Mr. Fotich to pay his respects. Dr. Krek is the leader of the Slovene People’s (or Clerical) Party, which is the largest political group in Slovenia and with Dr. Macek’s Croatian Peasant Party represents the largest opposition group to the present Yugoslav regime. Dr. Krek was a member of several pre-war cabinets and was also a member of the Royal Yugoslav Government-in-exile in London. He has been sentenced in absentia by the Yugoslav “People’s” Courts on charges of collaboration to ten years at forced labor, and recently arrived in the United States from Rome, where he had been residing for the past several years.

Visas

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Resettlement of Yugoslav DP’s in Italy

The matter of the resettlement of Yugoslav, particularly Slovene, refugees in Italy, was then raised. Mr. Fotich said that the plan to settle Serbian refugees in the Dominican Republic had been bogged down because of the unsettled situation in the Dominican Republic due to the rumors of revolutionary action by anti-Trujillo¹ elements. Mr. Fotich felt that with the recent arrest of the insurrectionist group in Cuba negotiations for the transfer of Serbian refugees from Italy to the Dominican Republic could now proceed to, he hoped, a successful conclusion. Slovene refugees in Italy, Dr. Krek observed, numbered some 5,000, both in and outside of DP camps. IRO’s shortage of funds prevented emigration of this entire group within the near future, IRO, however, was hoping that some funds might be available for transportation expenses, and Dr. Krek would attempt to obtain funds from various Slovene groups in this country to cover these costs. First efforts were being directed to shipping to the Argentine those Slovenes now inside DP camps. Dr Krek added that there were several hundred Slovene refugees already in the Argentine, and that some 500 more were now on their way. The difficulty, however, in expediting this matter was, he felt, due to the Argentine visa requirements. Although all 5,000 Slovenes, he indicated, had been accepted for emigration by the Argentine authorities, the physical process of issuing visas was such that the Argentine officials in Italy could only complete action on eight or so cases a day.

Request for U.S. Protest on Yovanovic Trial,

Both Dr. Krek and Mr. Fotich then referred to the trial now going on in Belgrade of Dr. Dragoljub Yovanovic, who until his arrest last May was the only opposition leader left in the Parliament, and who has now been charged by the Yugoslav authorities with espionage on behalf of a foreign power.² Pointing to the Department’s efforts in behalf of Petkov, the Bulgarian opposition leader who was recently convicted on similar charges and executed by the Bulgarian Government, and to the encouragement which the Department’s actions in his behalf had given to anti-Communist elements in Bulgaria and neighboring countries,³ Mr. Fotich expressed his earnest hope that the Department could take some action which, while admitting it would probably have no beneficial effect on the outcome of Yovanovic’s trial, would nonetheless give moral support to the anti-Tito elements in Yugoslavia. Mr. Barbour stated that the Department was not unmindful of Dr. Yovanovic’s actions and courage in expressing publicly his opposition to certain recent laws of the Tito regime; that our protests in the Petkov case, while referring to one individual, nonetheless set forth clearly our view on all such trials in Soviet satellite countries; and that any action in respect to Yovanovic was a matter which required careful study.

Dr. Krek stated that Yovanovic, who was a professor at the University of Belgrade and had a sizeable following among the Serb peasant population, had always been known for his pronounced leftist views. Shortly before the war he had forced a split in the Serbian Agrarian Party and formed a new party of those who favored cooperation with the Communists. His espousal of the Communist cause led to his imprisonment during the time that Dr. Krek was in the cabinet shortly before the war. Yovanovic, when he joined the People’s Front, did it, so Dr. Krek stated, because of his conviction that it was possible to work with the Communists. He was elected a member of the Serbian state and the federal parliaments, and was a vice president of the National Presidium. His actions over the past year, however, in showing his loss of faith in the Communists by criticizing in Parliament (a) the redistribution of agricultural land in Serbia, (b) the nationalization law, (c) the five-year plan and the budget with its tremendous amounts allocated for military expenditures, led to his arrest last May. Earlier in the spring he had been severely beaten up by a gang of toughs when on a visit to a village in North Serbia as punishment for his opposition to the present regime.

Reorganization in Italian Communist Party

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Tito–UK Agreement on DP’s in Austria

Just before departing Dr. Krek mentioned the fear with which Yugoslav refugees, particularly Slovene, in the British zone in Austria regarded the recent Tito-British agreement for the screening of the 20,000 Yugoslav DP’s there.⁴ He said that the announcement of the agreement had caused great confusion and utter dismay among these people and that many of them were fleeing from the camps to hijde out in the woods. This resulted from the refugees’ belief that fair and just standards of judgment would not be employed by the British in screening and in handing persons over to the Yugoslavs, whose charges, often based on political considerations, would, the refugees felt, be accepted by the British without a close scrutiny as to their veracity.

1. Gen. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, President of the Dominican Republic.
2. The arrest of Jovanovic was reported to the Department in detail in despatch 892, May 26, from Belgrade, not printed (860H.00/5–2647). Jovanovic’s trial in early October was reported in great detail in despatch 221, October 8, from Belgrade, not printed (860H.00/10–847). He was convicted and sentenced to 9–years imprisonment at hard labor.
3. For documentation regarding protests by the United States Government about the trial and execution of Bulgarian political leader Nikola Petkov, see pp. 159–183, passim.
4. On September 8, British and Yugoslav representatives signed an agreement at Bled, Yugoslavia, dealing with displaced persons, war criminals, and traitors. The Yugoslav Government denounced the agreement on December 9.