THE HONORABLE THE SECRETARY OF STATE WASHINGTON - Part 02

THE HONORABLE THE SECRETARY OF STATE WASHINGTON

Sir:

I have the honor to present below an article from the Bulgarian newspaper UTRO of August 3, 1943, which gives some account of the relations between Greeks and Bulgarians in the region west and northwest of Salonika, that is, in Greek Macedonia. The Bulgarian population in this part of Macedonia is gathered mainly around the towns of Kastoria, Florina, Vodena, and Enidje Vardar. Besides the Bulgarian population of these towns, which is largest in the town of Vodena, the Bulgarians live mainly in the outlying villages. The Bulgarians in this are represent old populations going back to the Middle Ages. This region was included within the limits of the territory assigned to Bulgaria by the Treaty of San Stefano. Accurate information as to the total Bulgarian population in this district is lacking. At the time of the Treaty of Bucharest in 1913 the population of that part of Macedonia assigned to Greece was given as follows:

Turks Bulgarians Greeks Kutso-Vlachs Albanians Gypsies Jews

299,880 297,735 249,657 39,480 21,770 23,130 84,112

Total 1,015,812

(G.P. Genov, "Bulgaria and the Treaty of Neuilly, page 139)

This included the area as far east as the Mesta River. A considerable part of the Bulgarian populations was expelled from Eastern Macedonia after 1919. Also the Greek population was expelled from Asia Minor in 1923. The Turkish population was also exchanged. How many Bulgarians now live in that part of Macedonia referred to in the article is impossible of accurate estimation. One might guess 100,000.

The article presented below indicates that relations between The Bulgarian and Greek population in this region are bitterly hostile. The situation described represents the struggle between local nationalities characteristic of the Balkans in regions where nationalities are mixed. The relationship is that of mass feud. There in no question in such region of right being exclusively on the side of either party. The two parties are irreconcilable. No government in the Balkans will rule an equal hand in such a district. The only solution is absolute control by a foreign power or exchange of populations.

When this region became Greek after the second Balkan War, a situation confirmed following the First Balkan War, the Bulgarian minority was deprived of its schools, churches and other Bulgarian institutions. Bulgarian children were forced to go to Greek schools. All books and newspapers in the Bulgarian language were forbidden. As it was impossible to prevent the population from speaking their native language in the home the language was continued. This is a situation characteristic of those areas of the Balkans where a helpless minority has fallen under the rule of a neighboring government.

What will happen in this area when the war in the Balkans ends with the defeat of the Bulgarian army? The probability is that the Bulgarian population will either be forcibly expelled or massacred as occurred on a considerable scale in the summer of 1913. In Eastern Macedonia and Western Thrace the Bulgarian population, which consists to a large extent of settlers who have come in during the last two years, will be able to escape by flight into Bulgaria, but the Bulgarian population in the region in Macedonia indicated below

will not be able to escape into Bulgarian territory and therefore will probably in large measure be destroyed, because the local hatreds which have existed for centuries have been greatly aggravated during the last two years. The only way in which massacre on a large scale in the Balkans can be prevented is by the occupation by Allied forces of all the regions where the population is mixed.

To say that in this case the Bulgarians will deserve any fate meted out to them is beside the point, because the persons who will suffer are the peasants who had nothing whatever to do with the policies of the government in Sofia, which brought Bulgaria into the war on the side of the Axis. The idea of justice in such cases does not exist in the Balkans. It is rather a question of humanity on the part of those at a distance who, not being concerned in local passions, are able to take a more humane view of the whole situation.

The article is extremely interesting as testimony of an actual situation in one of the most remote parts of Macedonia. In free translation it reads as follows:

The Bulgarians from the Kastoria District are waging an Epic Struggle against Greek Bands

By K. Naumov

“Salonika is full of hundreds of touch and stubborn sons of Enidje Vardar and of the provinces of Vodena, Florina and Kastoria. They speak to you in a wonderfully pure Bulgarian language and in their breasts beats a steel Bulgarian spirit. I was talking to one of them who comes from the district of Kastoria.

“The whole district, where every peak, every mountain and every village is marked by bloody traces as the result of the struggles which Bulgarian Macedonia fought for freedom and national existence in the past has taken up arms to defend itself and are openly against Greek bands, who have taken the offensive and are openly against everything Bulgarian in the district of Kastoria and elsewhere. Some of these bands are communists under the leadership of some one by the name of Ksilanti, while most bands are Greek nationalists acting under the slogan ‘Great Greece’. The aim of both bands is to wipe out the Bulgarians, and they are using the most cruel and barbaric means. Separately the bands act as communists or nationalists, as was the case in Serbia.

But when it comes to attacking whole Bulgarian villages, they are then all Greeks and are inspired only by the bloodthirsty desire to destroy in the most merciless way Bulgarianism, which appears in these parts of the Balkans as the only stronghold of Bulgarianism, peace, order, tranquility and the ideas of New Europe.

“The Kastoria district already has its own militia to fight these bands. In the town of Kastoria itself there is a special ‘Bulgarian committee of the Axis.’ In every village of the Kastoria district this militia, armed more with a high spirit, a sound Bulgarian stubbornness and a steel spirit rather than with sufficient arms and military supplies, is creating a grand epic of legendary struggle. Bulgaria appears as the ideal country of the long desired freedom. The people compose and sing songs of liberty as once the whole of Bulgaria fought against the Phanariotes . Flying columns, recalling the bands of Benkovski and Kableshkov, watch over the life and

safety of the whole Kastoria district, which has already made heavy sacrifices. The pretty and purely Bulgarian villages of Nestruni, Staricheni , Drenichevo, Gurche, Chuka, Ieleyoze, Breshani, Stensko, Radokoze and Slimnitsa have been burned down and destroyed by the raging Greek communist and nationalist bands which appear as ‘fifth columns’ of the Anglo-Americans. Many other villages also in the district of Kastoria, as Hrupishte and Embore, Gorenitsi and Chetiro as well as others have suffered. There is no village in the district of Kastoria which has not made heavy sacrifices for its freedom and its adherence to the Bulgarian nation. Greek bands enter Bulgarian villages at night, drag out the more aggressive and kill them. The population of the districts of Kastoria, Florina, Vodena and Enidje Vardar is united more and more around the Bulgarian tricolor with which the Kastoria militia defends its Bulgarian origin in the struggle against the Greek bands. The Bulgarian tricolor flies high in every place where the Bulgarian militia is, Bulgarian police has been organized in some villages. In the Kastoria militia hundreds of brave and bold Bulgarian girls are also carrying arms and are defending mothers, children and old people on an equal footing with the militiamen. Everything Greek has been for years boycotted and discarded. The children do not go to Greek schools. All Greek beginning books and textbooks have been burned or thrown into the Bistritsa River. If by any chance a Bulgarian book falls into their hands it is guarded as something holy. Old exarchate teachers, men and women, have organized courses for the Bulgarian language groups similar to those in the time of Paisii at Hilendar. The Greeks allow no food to these Bulgarians, not even salt. In spite of it all, the Bulgarians from the districts of Kastoria, Enidje Vardar, Florina and Vodena with their unbreakable and enthusiastic spirit, with the inerasable memories of the great epic of Gotse Delchev and the leader Chakalarov, are fighting and defending the great cause of justice and national existence with the idealism of the pre-liberation epoch”

Respectfully yours, Burton Y. Berry, American Consul General To Department in original and hectograph

Bulgaro-Yugoslav Relations – Macedonian question

September 10, 1940

Draft telegram No. 455 to Belgrade and No. 333 to Sofia of 23rd August recording a conversation with the Bulgarian Minister on 21st August who said Bulgarian relations with Yugoslavia were excellent and that it was no longer possible for the Macedonian issue to be used as a means of estranging the two countries. Macedonian revolutionaries now relied on funds issuing from bodies in the United States of America whose aim was an independent Macedonia, the establishment of which would entail sacrifices alike by Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece.

Belgrade telegram No. 655

This is a very useful telegram on a subject which has lost its former prominence. I think we can agree with both the Bulgarian Minister and with Mr. Campbell that the Macedonian question is of little importance in connexion with Yugoslav-Bulgarian relations.

At the same time there are indications that all three totalitarian powers are showing marked interest in the movement (see Sofia telegram No. 493 on 7075/613/7). Presumably the only possible German or Italian aim in encouraging Macedonian autonomy would be to include an autonomous Macedonia within Bulgarian borders, thus disintegrating Greece and Yugoslavia. In view of the close relations between the Axis and Bulgaria it may be possible that the instrument which they will use will not be either Ivan Mihailoff’s Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization or (naturally) the Communist Federalists who are mostly, I believe, organized in a Macedonian labour party which is backed very largely by American funds. At the moment I should imagine that most Macedonians belong to Mr. Campbell’s third category of discontented peasants who are anti-Yugoslav, anti-Greek, anti-Bulgarian, anti-German and anti everything except possibly anti-Rissian.

See also R 7515/G.

Canadian Embassy - Athens, February 16th, 1949

No. 111

Sir,

I have the honour to refer to my dispatch No. 50 of February 1st, 1949 concerning the activities in Canada of a pro-Bulgar and pro-Macedonian organization.

2. The British Embassy Security Authorities in Athens have forwarded to the Embassy a report entitled “A protest by the Macedonian People’ Union of Canada to the Yugoslav Government,” a copy of which is enclosed.

3. While this report has jest reached me, it was obtained by British Security Authorities in Greece from the Aliens directorate of the Greek Ministry of Public Order on December 14th, 1948.

4. The protest of the Macedonian People’s Union was addressed to the Legation of Yugoslavia in Ottawa. The Macedonian People’s Union is possible the same organization as the Macedonian0Canadian Peoples’ League mentioned in paragraph 2 of your dispatch under reference. The resolution is of particular interest in showing the Union’s anti-Tito and pro-Bulgarian sympathies.

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, (can’t tell signature)

The Right Honourable, The Secretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa.

Canadian Embassy - Athens, August 28th, 1949

J. A. McCordick No. 480

Sir,

I have the honour to refer to my dispatch No. 450 of July 20th concerning (unintelligible) relations with the northern neighbours and to report on recent developments in Greco-Yugoslav relations.

(all of page 1 is blurred and unintelligible)

…Macedonia. It might also be observed that the relation adopted by the meeting mentioned that Yugoslavia had “assisted 12,000 children from Greece and Macedonia” and invited all refugees from Aegean Macedonia to incorporate themselves as soon as possible into the economic and political life of the People’s Republic of Macedonia.

4. The decision taken by Marshal Tito to cease all aid to the Greek guerrillas was no doubt the only one he could safely take after the anti-Tito campaign which the KKE and the guerrilla radio had been carrying on. During the past month the guerrilla radio has intensified its campaign to the extent that in many broadcasts the anti-monarcho-fascists and anti-Anglo-American campaign has been relegated almost to second place as compared with the anti-Tito campaign. Scarcely a broadcast has taken place without the announcements that some particular of the Democratic Army has joined in the denunciation of Tito and especially of Keramintsieff and Gotseff, two of the Communist leaders who are said to be directing the Titoist movement in Greece and are, therefore, regarded by the KKE as arch-traitors to the movement.

An illustration of this type of broadcast might be given since it is representative of the campaign against these two “traitors.” “The Slav-Macedonian women fighters of the 18th Brigade of the Democratic Army condemn the Keramitsieff-Gotseff traitors” (guerrilla broadcast August 4th). It would appear, to judge from the

guerrilla broadcast, that every platoon of the Democratic Army has sent its condemnation of the two traitors to Headquarters.

On August 9th the guerrilla broadcast announced that “representatives of the Democratic Government toured the front and told the fighters of Tito’s treason. Nothing can describe the fighters’ hatred for Keramintsieff and Gotseff.” In addition, the guerrilla radio, on August 3rd and 11th, broadcast two lengthy articled against Tito, the first of which was entitled “Tito’s Knife Attacks on the rear of the Democratic Popular Movement of Greece,” by N. Zachariades, the Secretary-General of the KKE. The article contained a lengthy denunciation of Tito’s treason, which was said to have began in 1944 and was intensified in 1947. The article also mentioned that Tito hated the Greek Popular Democratic Movement, and thrust a knife in its back and was fighting it with a vengeance. The second article, which was broadcast on August 11th, was entitled “Tito’s Treason and the Communist Party of Greece,” and was by P. Roussos, the “Foreign Minister of the Democratic Government.” Roussos’s article like that of Zachariades, was a series of charges explaining how Tito had undermined the Greek Democratic Movement from the very beginning. Of special significance is the charge that one of the ways in which this was done by propaganda for the annexation of Greek Macedonia to Yugoslav-Macedonia and the organization of a network of Titoist agents in Greek Macedonia.

5. The battle between the KKE and Tito has not, of course, been fought from only one side. On August 2nd, in a speech in Skopje, Marshal Tito claimed that the Cominform, which was attacking Yugoslavia, did not wish to help the Greek people in its heroic struggle but was seeking in a sinister and underhand way to strangle the Democratic Movement of Greece. The Cominform moreover did not do this on its own but through the leaders of the KKE itself. Marshal Tito, however, declared that the liberating struggle of the Greek people was deeply buried in his heart. This assertion, it is hardly necessary to add, did nothing to convince Greek public opinion that Tito had had a change of heart.

6. An interesting result of the Tito-Cominform dispute and the reverses suffered by the guerrillas in Greece has been the way in

which Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria have tried to outdo each other in claiming that from the very beginning it was they who had contributed most to the Greek guerrilla movement. This, despite their past repeated denials of having provided any support to the Greek guerrillas. Thus, on July 25th for example, Radio Belgrade announced that the Yugoslav Foreign Minister, Mr. Kardelj, had stated that it was public knowledge that Yugoslavia had given medical assistance to a great number of wounded Greek guerrillas as well as to Greek refugees and children. In Tito’s speech at Skopje on August 2nd (mentioned above) reference is also made to the support given by Yugoslavia to the guerrillas. Mr. Koulichewski, the Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of Macedonia, referred at the same meeting to the great moral and political support that Yugoslavia had given right from the start to Greek Democratic Movement, and pointed out that this assistance had had a decisive influence on the struggle against the monarcho-fascists.

7. With regards to the relations between the Greek Government and Yugoslavia, there have, of course, been a considerable number of Yugoslav accusations against the Greek Government during the past month. On July 29th it was announced that the Yugoslav Government had delivered a note to the Greek Government protesting against the bombing of the Yugoslav village of Kotsimir by a Greek aircraft. The note called for sanctions against those responsible for the alleged incident and demanded damages for the destruction which had been cause. The Yugoslav also protested because of a Greek military officer, on being notified of the incident, declined an invitation from the Yugoslav authorities to enter Yugoslav territory to ascertain on the spot the damage which the bombing had done to the village. The Greek authorities claimed that the Yugoslavs had been unable to put forward any proof whatever that the aircraft in question was actually Greek, and pointed out that the local Yugoslav authorities did not even allege to have established the markings of the plane. The Greeks pointed out that, on the contrary, the records of the Royal Hellenic Air Force showed conclusively that on the day of the alleged “incident” no Greek plane flew over the sector in question.

Whatever the merits of the case may be, the Greeks undoubtedly made a mistake in refusing to accept the Yugoslav invitation to

inspect the damage to the village. UNSCOB has been trying repeatedly to obtain Yugoslav permission to investigate incidents on the Yugoslav side of the border and the Greek refusal to the Yugoslav invitation would appear unfortunate from a tactical point of view, especially since the Greeks would nit acknowledge responsibility for the bombing merely by visiting the village in question.

8. Perhaps more important, however, than these Yugoslav accusations against Greece was the re-affirmation, on August 7th, at the celebrations held in Skopje on the occasion of the anniversary of the foundation of the Federal Republic of Macedonia, that Yugoslavia would continue its policy of attempting to create a unified Macedonia under Yugoslav auspices. The declaration made by various Yugoslav leaders at these celebrations in Skopje, the guerrilla radio’s charge that Tito was operating a network of agents in Macedonia under Keramitsieff and Gotseff, the vehemence poured out by the KKE on these two Titoists, and the various reports received of Yugoslav agents crossing into Greek Macedonia – all appear to point to the conclusion the Tito is renewing his efforts to maintain leadership of the Macedonian Movement in Greek Macedonia.

9. On the other hand, a more hopeful sign occurred on August 17th, when the Yugoslav Charge d’Affaires in Athens called on Mr. Pipinellis, the Permanent Greek Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. This was the first official call at the Foreign Office made by a member of the Yugoslav Legation in over two years. The object of the call was to discuss the bad treatment received by Yugoslav citizens in Greece. Mr. Pipinellis refrained from bringing up what was the obvious answer to this kind of approach, namely, the treatment of Greek children in Yugoslavia. Even if the subject matter of the call was not calculated to bring about a rapprochement between the two governments, the fact that the call was made may well be a step towards a more conciliatory attitude by Yugoslavia towards Greece. It is perhaps significant that while the closing of the Greco-Yugoslav frontier was made on the grounds of monarch-fascist provocations against Yugoslavia, the first official call of the Charge d’Affires should be to discuss the bad treatment received by Yugoslav citizens in Greece.

10. The conditions which the Greeks regard as prerequisites to any rapprochement between Yugoslavia and Greece remain the same. The first condition – a complete cessation of aid to the guerrillas – seems to have been fulfilled. No move whatsoever has been made to fulfill the second condition – the return of Greek children in Yugoslavia. With regard to the third condition – the abandonment of Yugoslav maneuvers to incorporate Greek Macedonia into Yugoslavia, the speeches made at Skopje and other evidence, seem to indicate that the Yugoslavs were taking exactly the opposite attitude and increasing their support of a greater Macedonian movement.

11. The Greeks have been watching with keen, if anxious, interest, the negotiations between Italy and Yugoslavia with regards to Trieste. There is considerably anxiety in this country that if Greece is not consulted in this rapprochement between Italy and Yugoslavia, Greek interests are likely to suffer, since Yugoslav Imperialism will be concentrated southward against Greece. The Greeks feel it is essential that any agreement reached between the West and Yugoslavia should provide guarantees of Greece’s independence. If a piecemeal rapprochement is made with Yugoslavia, the Greeks feel they will be left in the lurch.

12. (The rest of the report is missing).

Canadian Embassy - Athens, January 3rd, 1949

No. 5

Sir,

I have the honour to report that on December 29th, 1948, the Greek daily ESTIA carried a short article entitled “Greek Communist Party co-operates with the Bulgarians.” The article reads as follows:

“Abundant and indisputable evidence has been received on the betrayal of the Greek Communist Party in an agreement with the Bulgarians on the basis of a complete and clear programme. This Party (the K.K.E.), systematically reinforced by rich Bulgarian immigrants in Canada and the United States, and by the Government of Sofia, had at its disposal plentiful funds which permitted the K.K.E to finance its agents in a generous way.

Any information which may be available relating to alleged activities by Bulgarians in Canada along the lines suggested by this article, would be appreciated.

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, (can’t tell signature)

The Right Honourable, The Secretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa.

Canadian Embassy - Moscow, February 9th, 1945

No. 86

Sir,

I have the honour to report that on February 7th, I called on Mr. Stanoje Simich, the Yugoslav Ambassador and had a long conversation with him. As you know Mr. Simich has been nominated in the agreement reached between Marshal Tito and Mr. Subasich last autumn to take over the position of Vice-Premier in the new Yugoslav government to be formed after Mr. Subasich returns to Yugoslavia with his colleagues to give effect to that agreement.

2. Mr. Simich is in the process of rehabilitating his Embassy. A new Counselor has just arrived to assist him. The all-time low was reached when Mr. Simich was in Belgrade last October and November and his wife and sister became the sole occupants of the Yugoslav Embassy. When he came to the Soviet Union in March, 1943, the staff of the Yugoslav Embassy consisted of Mr. Simich, his Councilor, Mr. Marinkovich and his Military Attaché, Lieutenant Colonel Lozich. When Mr. Simich and Lieutenant Colonel Lozich broke in March, 1944, with the Yugoslav Government in Cairo and placed themselves at the disposal of Marshal Tito, Mr. Marinkovich withdrew from the Embassy and set up a separate establishment in the National Hotel. From here he conducted a somewhat comical and fruitless campaign to secure possession of the Yugoslav Embassy and to oust Mr. Simich. The Soviet Government took the stand than Mr. Simich had been properly accredited and until his credentials were withdrawn they would continue to recognize him as the Yugoslav Ambassador. When the Sabasich Government was formed in June Mr. Marinkovich left Moscow and disappeared from the scene. Earlier Lieutenant Colonel Lozich had left Moscow to join Marshal Tito’s forces since a military mission of ten officers representing the Marshal arrived in Moscow in April. For a long period, therefore, Mr. Simich was all alone in the Embassy, a situation which became ludicrous when Belgrade was liberated and he left to spend six weeks conferring with Marshal Tito. He returned on November 20th with Mr. Sabasich and participated in the

conversation with the Yugoslav Prime Minister had with the Soviet leaders.

3. I always enjoy meeting the honest, outspoken and big-hearted Yugoslav Ambassador, who is such a typical Serb.

The breezy frankness of Mr. Simich reminds me of the early leaders of the Russian Revolution. It is somewhat embarrassing, however, for me to talk to him since most of the conversation consists of tirades against the western Allies, particularly the United Kingdom and the United States Governments. The former he persists in referring to as “your government”, a practice I have given up trying to correct. It is also futile trying to argue with Mr. Simich in defense of the western powers. He brushes aside my arguments with some good-natured remark and then immediately launches into a fresh attack from some other angle. Thus our conversation comes to resemble the firing of a rifle in reply to an outburst of machine-gun fire.

4. On this occasion also Mr. Simich was free with criticisms of British and United States policy and loud in his denunciations of “your government”, when I asked him how conditions where in Yugoslavia he immediately complained about the absence of relief. He said that it was ironical that in the parts of Yugoslavia nearest to the Soviet Union, where there were more plentiful supplies of locally-produced food, these supplies were being supplemented by the Soviet authorities, whereas in Dalmatia, just across the Adriatic from the Western Allies and producing little or no food of its own, people were dying of starvation and no relief was being furnished. I asked him if nothing was being done by UNDRA but he replied that they were not allied to UNDRA but to “your government” and to the United States Government. Relief was needed now and if later on its way offered by the Western Allies after they had commenced to stand on their own feet, they would have to declare “thank you, we do not need help now”. Marshal Tito had concluded an agreement with UNDRA but they were not yet able to furnish relief. I asked what was the cause and when he shrugged his shoulders I suggested shipping might be the difficulty. This brought forth a reference to the many Yugoslav ships being operated by the Allies, of which he thought some should be sparred to carry supplies to Yugoslavia, I

then suggested internal transport and that was why they had asked for trucks. Surely, he said, out of the thousands of trucks being produced in the United States and Canada a few could be spared for Yugoslavia.

5. I suppose that Mr. Simich had little recent information on the subject of relief for Yugoslavia. This was confirmed later when I asked him about the negotiations with King Peter and he had to admit that he was receiving no telegrams from the Yugoslav Government in London, Hoping, therefore, to get a word of praise for what he kept referring to as “your government”, I asked him if it was not true that the United Kingdom had furnished supplies to Marshal Tito’s forces when they had been in most dire need of help. He replied by stating that when he had been in Yugoslavia he saw the Partisans dressed in Italian, Hungarian and German uniforms. The only members of the Partisan forces he had seen dressed in British Uniforms were a few staff officers who had just arrived from Italy. I then said that I had understood supplies had been dropped regularly by parachute to the Partisans. His retort to this was to mention that second hand boots and second hand socks had been dropped. Some of the boots had worn-out soles and some of the socks were full of holes. These had to be thrown away. Practically speaking, he said, the Partisan forces had been both armed and clothed with booty they had captured from the Italians and later from the Germans. It became evident to me that this Vice-Premier designate of the future Yugoslav Government will not be disposed to help the application of Mr. Churchill’s formula for fifty-fifty British and Soviet influence in Yugoslavia.

6. I asked the Ambassador about present military operations in his country but referred me to an article contributed by a Yugoslav staff officer to a recent number of the Soviet newspaper “Red Star”. He then added that the Yugoslav forces were not sufficiently numerous to surround the twenty German divisions trying to escape from Yugoslavia, so that they were doing was to harass the enemy as much as possible and to cut off and exterminate the tails of the German column bit by bit.

7. I asked Mr. Simich where he had stayed in his recent visit to Belgrade and he replied that he had put up at the Hotel Moskva, one

of the few hotels in the city which had not been destroyed. He related that the most serious damage to the city had been caused by the day-light raids last Easter of the United States flying fortresses. Marshal Tito had given permission to the Allies for them to bomb military objectives, but the United States bombers had released their bombs from a great height with the result that great damage had been done to the city proper and many civilians had been killed or wounded. They resented the later statement issued by the United States Command that the bombing had been undertaken with the approval of Marshal Tito. At this stage Mr. Simich paid a compliment at least to “your government”. He said that a British bomber had come in, dove down and released its bomb on the foundations of a tall building in which many of the German officers were located. As a result the bomb killed all the German working in the building who had taken refuge in the cellar. That, Mr. Simich exclaimed, is bombing of a military objective.

8. We then got around discussing the conversations taking place in London for putting into effect the Tito-Subasich agreement. The Ambassador treated these conversations as of little consequence to Yugoslavia. The comedy being enacted in London, he said, will make no difference to the internal situation in Yugoslavia. It can only have an effect on external relations and may delay the provision of relief to Yugoslavia. If so, when this becomes reality by the people of Yugoslavia, the position of the King will be still more untenable. I said that the outcome of the conversations in London would have an important bearing on the future of Mr. Subasich. He replied to this by asking me what importance was the position of one man compared to the fate of a nation. It was at this stage that I noticed the only photograph in his room was one of Marshal Tito.

9. I asked Mr. Simich if there were not many Serbs anxious for the return of King Peter. He replied that this was a common misconception held abroad. Contrary to the view of most foreigners a larger proportion of Croats and Slovenes would vote for the retention of his crown by a Serbian king then would be the case with the Serbs themselves. This would be due to the greater strength of monarchist sentiment among adherents of the Roman Catholic than among those of the Greek Orthodox Church, the greatest capitalist influence in the industrial centers of Croatia and Slovenia and the

reactionary influence of the Matchet peasant party in Croatia. He ventured to predict that not more than 10 per cent of the Serbs would vote for the return of the King to Yugoslavia whereas among the Croats and Slovenes the proportion might be 20 per cent.

10. Mr. Simich then became very eloquent about the revolution that had taken place in his country. He described it as a “new world” and said one had to be in Yugoslavia to appreciate the new enthusiasm of the people. The revolution had started in 1941 when Prince Paul’s understanding with the Nazis had been repudiated by the people, but it had found full expression in the Partisan movement inspired by Marshal Tito. It was not of such importance to men like himself who lives where drawing to a close, but it was a wonderful experience for young people like his daughter who had recently returned to Belgrade to work for the civil administration. They felt they were participating in the birth of a new era and could work with enthusiasm knowing they could be full of hope for the future.

11. I tried to bring Mr. Simich back to earth by asking him if there were not many Serbian nationalists dissatisfied with the new state of affairs and who grieved at the prospect of the loss of Serbian hegemony. He replied that this was true of a lot of old men abroad, but did not apply to those in the country who saw with their own eyes and experienced with their own feelings the strength of the movement and the enthusiasm of the mass of the people, particularly the younger generations. I then asked what the Serbs though about Nish having been liberated and later occupied by the Bulgarians. He said Serbs were practical people and realized that if the Bulgarians help them throw out the Germans it meant the sacrifice of less Serbian lives for their purpose.

12. Wanting to clear up a point concerning the Tito-Subasich agreement about which I was in doubt, I asked the Ambassador if the agreement provided for one or two Vice-Presidents (really Vice-Premiers). He replied that there was to be really one Vice-Premier, himself, but that a later amendment to the agreement envisaged the appointment of six other Vice-Presidents, who really would be ministers without portfolio, representing each of the six autonomous regions into which it was proposed to divide the new federated Yugoslavia.

13. The Ambassador said that the six autonomous regions would be Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Voevodina would be an autonomous district within an autonomous Serbia. There was still a lot of discussion going on in Yugoslavia about these proposals and changes may have to be made, but the main principles had found general acceptance. Many of the inhabitants of Bosnia-Herzegovina, for instance, were expressing reluctance to be separated from the other Serbs. The Dalmatians might wish to have an autonomous region of their own, separate from Croatia, but Mr. Simich did not think this to be probable. He agreed with me when I said that the formation of an autonomous Macedonia, to which would be ceded territory now Bulgarian but inhabited by Macedonians, might pave the way for Bulgaria joining the federation. He added, however, that this would depend largely upon the Bulgarian government towards the people of Yugoslavia, an observation which seemed to indicate some doubt in his mind about the permanence of Bulgarian-Yugoslav reconciliation. I then suggested that the question of the monarchy in Bulgaria might prove an obstacle, but he laughingly observed that the future of the Bulgarian monarchy was no brighter than that of the Karageorgievitch dynasty in Yugoslavia.

14. I am sending a copy of this dispatch to the Charge d’Affaires of the Canadian Legation to the Allied Governments in the United Kingdom.

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, (Sgd) L.D. Willgrass.

The Right Honourable, The Secretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa, Canada.

Canadian Embassy - Athens, March 5th, 1947

No. 126

Sir,

I have the honour to enclose here with a copy of a letter of 3rd March from the First Secretary of the United Kingdom Embassy to Mr. George passing on for our information a report received from the United Kingdom Consul at Corfu in which he refers to the activities of an organization known as “ORIM” which was founded in 1903 for the independence of Macedonia and has its headquarters at 9 Dean Street, Toronto. This organization has apparently been sending money to prisoners of Bulgarian sympathies who collaborated either with Bulgarians or the Germans during the occupation.

2. Although the United Kingdom Embassy has no further information on the activities of “ORIM”, I think you may be interested in the report and may wish to make enquiries as to the present activities of this organization which is presumably sending money to other persons interested in the movement for an independent Macedonia with Slav and Communist affiliations.

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, (can’t tell signature)

The Right Honourable, The Secretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa, Canada.

Canadian Embassy - Athens, April 3rd, 1947

No. 175

Sir,

I have the honour to transmit for your information, further to my dispatches Nos. 147 of 12th March and 126 of 5th March, a Gendarmerie (Special Security) report from Jannina, Epirus, dated 28th February regarding “anti national activities of a Slav organization in Canada” which contains further details of the ORIM activities.

2. I received the report from United Kingdom Consul at Corfu through the United Kingdom Embassy at Athens. The Consul, Mr. Kinsella, reports that the parcels referred to in the report were two Red Cross food parcels sent through the Consulate by the Embassy to Kyriakos Kotoris, a prisoner serving a life sentence in Corfu jail on a charge of collaboration with the Bulgarians during the occupation. At the request of Mr. Kotoris’ relatives in Canada I made enquiries through Mr. Kinsella and, on his strong recommendation, I sent two parcels for him. Mr. Kinsella had reported that conditions in the jail were appalling and that the inmates were in urgent need of food and clothing. In view of Kotoris’ Canadian connection and on humanitarian grounds regardless of politics, I made the gesture of sending him two food parcels as evidence that Canada recognizes misery wherever it exists. The parcels were sent to Mr. Kinsella who handed them to the director of the prison in the presence of Kotoris on 21st November, 1946.

3. I am not much impressed by this latest example of the seditious activities of “ORIM” which the over zealous Commander of the Gendarmerie in Jannina might easily have traced to the Canadian Embassy. Nevertheless it might well be true that ORIM’s organization in Canada is worth investigating.

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, (can’t tell signature)

The Right Honourable, The Secretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa, Canada.

Canadian Embassy Athens, July 29th, 1946

No. 515

Sir,

I have the honour to report that relations between Greece and Yugoslavia are becoming more and more strained, as disorders in the North of Greece continue, and the evidence of Yugoslav assistance to Greek armed bands is made public by Greek authorities. Matters have gone so far already that on July 26th, Mr. Cankar, Yugoslav Minister to Greece called on the Prime Minister, M. Tsaldaris and complained of the campaign which was being launched by the Royalist section of the Greek press against the Government of Marshal Tito. Mr. Cankar told me this morning that he had made it clear to the Prime Minister that, should this press compaign continue, he would return to his country, leaving his Legation to a Charge d’Affairs.

2. This formal protest, coming immediately before his Paris Conference, is all the more important because Yugoslavia is the only country immediately north of Greece with which Greece is in official relations. If diplomatic relations were, in fact, to be broken, Greece would have no tie with any Balkan State. The geographical location of Greece makes this important to her, not only for political but also for economic reasons. The same considerations must deter Yugoslavia from breaking off relations. For example, UNDRA shipments to Southern Yugoslavia have been delivered through Salonika on several occasions, by arrangement between the Yugoslav Legation and UNDRA Greece Mission. In fact the maintenance of relations is probably of more immediate economic value to Yugoslavia, which has no major port, than to Greece which has several.

3. Undoubtedly one of the chief grievances which Mr. Cankar and his Government feel is that the statements of responsible Greek officials have recently been made public conforming the somewhat wild speculations in which the Royalist Press has been indulging for several months regarding Yugoslav aid to the autonomist and communist partsans who are operating in Northern Greece. As

reported in my dispatch No.439 of July 6th, 1946, the Governor of Macedonia, Mr. Dalipis, wrote an aggressive and forthright article which appeared in ELLINIKON VIMA, a leading Right Wing newspaper in Athens, on June 22nd, a, Delipis’s resignation was announced shortly afterwards, but it appears that not only did the Government refused to accept Mr. Delipis’s resignation, but a copy of his article was sent to all Greek Missions abroad. In Yugoslav eyes, this amounts to the Greek Government’s support of Mr. Dalipis’s views. There was no doubt in my mind that this is correct: the fact of Yugoslav resistance to Greek armed bands seems to have been well established from what I have said in my previous dispatches, I need hardly see that Mr. Cankar’s protest, made as if Yugoslavia was the injured party, strikes me as somewhat farcical.

4. The Greek Government is well aware of the importance of not breaking off diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia and I am sure every effort will be made to bend over backwards in the direction of official correctness to prevent a rapture. If a break should occur I believe it will be because the Yugoslavs, not the Greeks want it so. The present demarche is simply another form of pressure which is applied daily upon the Greek Government by the Governments of the neighbouring countries to the north. Although this is the first official indication of Greek-Yugoslav friction, the two countries have for many months been back to back, Yugoslavia looking to the hinterland of the Soviet dominion, while Greece, from her long coastline, looks out to sea, to the West.

5. Copies of this dispatch have been sent to the High Commissioner for Canada in London and the Canadian Ambassador in Washington and Paris.

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, (can’t tell signature)

The Right Honourable, The Secretary of State for External Affairs, Ottawa.

Canadian Embassy - Athens, March 12th, 1947

No. ???

Sir,

I have the honour to refer to my dispatch No. 126 of 5th March concerning the Slavic organization in Canada known as “ORIM” and quote below from a report dated 28th February from the High Commander of Gendarmerie in Ioannina, Epirus, to the Supreme Command of the Royal Greek Gendarmerie in Athens, a copy of which was forwarded to me by the British Police and Prisons Mission, Athens.