Telegram from President Harry S. Truman to Prime Minister Winston Churchill

QECLASSIFIED by authority of Dept. gather FR.1955 NLT- 305 VDII P.1168 5. Initiales "NATIONAL TOP SECRE 20 May 1945 US ARCHIVES SERVICE" RECORDS AND TOP SECRET PRIORITY 1945 MAY 20 21 00 From: Opnav 7327 To : Alusna, London 202044Z, NCR LRPKG NUMBER 43. TOP SECRET AND PERSONAL FROM THE PRESIDENT FOR THE PRIME MINISTER. In view of recent developments in the dispute with Tito over the occupation and adninistration of North East Italy, I have today sent the following telegram to Stalin: QUOTE. Through the Embassy in Moscow I have been keeping you informed of the American position on the interim administration of the Venezia Giulia. In particular your Government was iven copies of the recent American and British notes to Marshal Tito which proposed, in accordance with the previous understand- ing reached in February between Field Marshal Alexander and Marshal Tito, that the Suppreme Allied Commander should exercise control in an area including Trieste, Monfalcone, Gorizia and Pola in order not to prejudice any final disposition through occupation by either claimant. We have now had a reply from Marshal Tito which is entirely unsatisfactory in that he states that his government is not prepared "to renounce the right of the Yugoslav Army holding the territory up to the Isonzo River." As regards the administration of the area he offers a solution which cannot be reconciled with the principles we have enunciated. Meanwhile the proximity of Alexander's and Tito's troops in undefined areas of occupation and the dual nature of control thus created are fraught with danger. You will have seen from Ambassador Harriman's communication to Mr. Molotov last March; from our recent public statement, and from the communication to Marshal Tito that we dannot consider this simply in the light of an Italian-Yugoslav boundary dispute but must regard it as a question of principle involving the pacific settlement of