c (19 l- ) YUGOSlAVIA ANO ITAlY BY J. B. TITO Marshal of Yugoslavia DR. JOSIP SMODLAKA Commissioner of Foreign Affairs In the National Liberation Committee of Yugoslavia FRAN BARBALICH Expert on ltalo-Yugoslav Problem Edited, with a Foreword by LOUIS ADAMIC THE UNITED COMMITTEE OF SOUTH-SLAVIC AMERICANS NEW YORK, N. Y. Foreword HIS material deals with one of the most challenging .. boundary T questions in contemporary Europe. On its solution depend not only the fate of a vast number of people, Yugoslavs and Italians, living in the disputed regions, but the future relations between Yugoslavia and Italy, both vitally important countries, and the peace in Europe and the world. It is very likely that in the next several months the Italo-Yugoslav border problem will become a matter of frequent front-page headlines. This material is offered as an invitation to understanding on the part of Americans and others-as a glimpse into the principles and con­ siderations involved in Europe's politico-territorial problems. By now nearly everyone in the United States knows who Tito is. Dr. Smodlaka's official position in the present Yugoslav political picture is given in the by-line over his piece. In his mid-seventies, a Additional copies of this pamphlet are deeply cultured, widely-traveled European, a scholar and humanist, available at 5¢ each. one-time Yugoslav minister to the Vatican, he is the grand old man of the Yugoslav Peoples' Liberation Movement. Thf problem of Italo­ Yugoslav relations has long been his special field. His article, trans­ lated by the staff of the United Committee of South-Slavic Americans, is taken from the June-July, 1944, issue of Nova f ugoslavija (New Yugoslavia), "a journal of political and social questions," published in Liberated Yugoslavia. The magazine reached New York early in September. Mr. Fran Barbalich is another Yugoslav expert on his fellow nationals' plight in Italy. His article is included as a footnote to Dr. Smodlaka's exposition. UNITED COMMITTEE LOUIS ADAMIC OF SOUTH-SLAVIC AMERICANS, Milford, New Jersey, 1010 Park Avenue, New York 28, N. Y. October 1, 1944. 3 Tito Makes a Statement From the September 15, 1944, New York Times: Marshal Tito, demanding the "amendment of past injustices such as the Versailles and other treaties" has laid claim for Yugoslavia to Italian Istria and declared that "we could not be reconciled" to being "kept outside" at the peace conference, the Free Yugoslav radio said last night in a broadcast reported by the Federal Communications Commission. "We wish to be together with our allies at the table where the fate of Europe and our country is decided," Marshal Tito said. "This is our right. I am sure that our wish will be met with an understanding with our allies-because our people deserve it, having proved loyalty to the common cause of the Allies at a tremendous sacrifice." In laying claim to Istria, the peninsula on which the port of Trieste ~ situated, Marshal Tito declared that the Partisans had been ''too modest" up to the present time in raising territorial questions. * * * * From a special wireless dispatch t~ the New York Times, date­ lined Rome, September 16, 1944, and entitled "ITALIANS DIS­ MAYED BY TITO'S SPEECH": Marshal Tito's speech on the second anniversary of the Dalmatian Brigade, in which he is said to have demanded Istria, Trieste and the hinterland as well as the entire Dalmatian coast for the new Yugo­ slavia, caused dismay and depression in Rome today. This was something that all Italians had feared was coming, but they had hoped that the United Nations would take into account the 5 grave danger to European peace in depriving Italy of Trieste. That hope still remains, but Marshal Tito's demands confirm the worst fears of trouble ahead . The Yugoslav-Italian Count Carlo Sforza, in his speech on foreign affairs last month, suggested turning Fiume into a League of Nations port and making Trieste a free port under Italian direction without changing the frontier. Boundary Problem He expressed Italy's willingness to give up the Dodecanese Islands and By DR. JOSIP SMODLAK.A other coionies, but not Trieste. This is one point on which Italians are unanimous. While they would have to yield to superior force if Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, the National Liberation (Tito's) Trieste were taken from them now, anyone who knows this country Committee of Yugoslavia could confidently predict that it would be a cause for future irredentism that would be certain to disturb the peace of Europe. OLLOWING World War I, Italy occupied by armed force large There is still some confusion here as to Marshal Tito's exact: words. F sections of Yugoslav territory- the entire belt from Triglav and According to the Free Yugoslavia radio, heard here by the Psychological Socha (lsonzo) to Snezhnik (Monte Nevoso) and the Bay of Bakar, Warfare Board, Marshal Tito said: "Our nation is also fighting for and northern Dalmatia from V elebit to the Cetina Gap and Cape the liberation of those of our brothers who have been for years groaning Planka, including all the islands of Quarnero as well as most of the under an alien yoke. Our brothers in Istria and the Slovene areas must Dalmatian islands. Italy wanted to annex all ·these parts despite the be freed and must live freely in their country with their brothers. We fact that a great majority of their population is racially and linguistic­ do not want what is not ours, but what is ours we will not give away. ally South-Slavic. She based her claims on the London Pact of April We demand the amendment of past injustices such as the Versailles and 26, 1915, under which Great Britain, France and Czarist Russia had other treaties, a demand that some people in countries that were at war promised her these territories as a price for her entrance into the war with us a short time ago consider to be some kind of imperialism and against Germany and Austria-Hungary. something that might cause another war in a few years. They think The Yugoslav representation at the Peace Conference in Paris, to that we should leave our compatriots under a foreign yoke." which I belonged as an Authorized Delegate, fought in 1919 against the Italian demands to annex .these territories. Our only ally in that The PWB gave out to Italian newspapers other parts of the speech struggle was America-specifically, President Woodrow Wilson. When, referring to the eradication of fascism, but one newspaper; the Tempo, as a result of the adverse vote of the American Senate, Wilson lost his heard a London broadcast in Spanish giving Marshal Tito's speech. dominating influence at the Peace Conference, we remained isolated, According to this, he ~emanded Istria, Trieste, Fiume, the Island of faced by the dilemma: either to continue the struggle for our rights Hvar, part of the Gorizia Province of Slovenia, part of Sryria and without allies (as Lithuania did for Vilna) or to bow before the Carinthia. stronger adversary. I favored continuation of the struggle, but when NOT~: The q~estio~ of border adjustments in Slovenian Styria and Carinthia I ~oticed that our official circles apparently were ready to yield, I are not ~1scussed 10 this pamphlet. These provinces are in Austria. But this resigned as a delegate early in 1920. problem 1s closely related-and essentially similar to the Italo-Yugoslav one. 6 7 Some months later official Yugoslavia (headed by Prince-Regent, later King, Alexander and Premier Nikola Pasich) formally renounced until 1924. On January 25th of rhat year a so-called Treaty of ltalo­ the greatest part of the contested territories. In the little town of Yugoslav Friendship was concluded in Rome by which Nikola Pasich Rapallo, near Genoa, on Nov. 12, 1920, a Pact was concluded whereby and Momchilo Nincich (both more pro-Italy rhan pro-Yugoslavia)* the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes acknowledged rhe bowed to Mussolini and recognized Italy's unconditional sovereignty sovereignty of Italy over the entire Slovenian Littoral, a considerable over Fiume. part of Camiola, almost all of lstria, rhe city of Zadar with its sur­ As a result of this second Rapallo some 650,000 South Slavs roundings, all of the Quarnero islands except Krk, and the Dalmaitian (Slovenes and Croats) foll under the rule of Italy which immediately islands of Lastovo, Susac and Pelagruza. The rest of Dalmatia and a adopted a rurhless course of denationalization. No national minority minute part of !stria remained in Yugoslavia. Italy's leading spokesmen in Europe was subjected to greater persecution than rhese Slavs in at that Conference were Count Sforza (close personal friend of Nikola Italy. In a short time their language was entirely eliminated from Pasich), at that time Minister of Foreign Affairs and now minister government offices, courts, municipalities, schools, and even churches. without portfolio, and the Premier of the present Ltalian government Even its use in private life was forbidden by threats of violence; one Bonomi, while Yugoslavia was represented by Dr. Ante Trumbich, at by one, the Croatian and Slovenian educational and economic institu­ that time Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Vesnich, then Ambas­ tions were destroyed; Slavic songs as well as any kind of social gather­ sador in Paris, both now deceased. ings of Slavs were forbidden; no permits were granted for the publica­ This Pact entailed a great territorial loss for our people. What was tion of Croatian and Slovenian newspapers and the reading of books even worse, its terms did not provide for any minority rights for Yugo­ in the mother-tongue was made impossible; people were punished for slavs remaining under Italy.