FORCES NEAR TRIESTE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24909, 24 June 1946, Page 5

FORCES NEAR TRIESTE

ALLIED MOVEMENTS ALLEGED

OFFICIAL STATEMENT IN BELGRADE ... .. _ , LONDON. June 21. As the Foreign Ministers’ Conference began to tackle its biggest immediate problem—the future status of Trieste—Jugoslav authorities in Belgrade issued an official statement declaring that Allied tanks ’and troops were moving towards the contested S2ys Paris correspondent of the Associated Press. “Belgrade newspapers featured a statement from an official news agency that British and American forces were concentrating on the demarcation line in X. enez l a GJiulia. with large numbers of Chetnik and Ustashi troops dressed m American uniforms. The statement alleged that incidents in Trieste which the Fascist and civil police provoked had been inaccurately characterised in the foreign newspapers as clashes between Slovenes and Italians and were

connected with the concentration of Jugoslav troops and the alleged intention of Jugoslavia to attack the Allies in Trieste. “The agency said it was learned on June 18 that a large column of tanks, guns, and trucks was noticed near Trieste and Gorizia. The British 56th and 6th Divisions were among those identified moving towards the demarcation line. The work of making fortifications was constantly going on and enormous quantities of barbed wire and other material were arriving.” A spokesman for Lieutenant-General John Lee, deputy-commander in the Mediterranean theatre, categorically denied the Belgrade reports that British and American forces along the Morgan Line had been strengthened. “There are absolutely no troop movements of any importance,” he said. “Nothing whatsoever has occurred to change the status quo in the Venezia Giulia area. ' We shall carry out our assignment to preserve the status quo there until the Allies settle the frontier.”