FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1946, VOLUME VI



  "Excellency, On Thursday, August 22, in a conference with you,
and again in your note to me of August 23, we were assured that noth-
ing had been found of the personnel of our plane shot down on Au-
gust 19.45 What are the facts? On the 23rd of August my party,
assisted by your officers, found them to be as follows:
  A Yugoslav militia patrol arrived on the scene of the crash an hour
and a half after it happened. They waited until late on the following
day for a superior investigating commission, but none came. They
then decided on their own initiative because of the odor of the remains,
to bury what could be found of the occupants. With the aid of some
German prisoners they gathered the remains in a box and carried them
to the nearby village of Koprivnik. There in a corner of a churchyard
near a rubble heap they buried them in a manner fit rather for paupers
than for officers and soldiers of a friendly nation.
  These facts are corroborated by the statements of your army and
militia officials. We are profoundly shocked by this seeminglv casual
treatment of our unfortunate men. Although "all this took place very
near to you, Marshal, you apparently were not informed.
  We have immediately exhumed this common coffin, separated the
remains and set about assembling other remnants still being found
near the scene of the crash, for the purpose of removing them to Bel-
grade for proper burial in your military cemetery. We expect that you
will furnish a guard of honor and escort from the Yugoslav Air Force
to accompany these remains from Kropivnik to Ljubljana and remain
with them there until I can personally transport them in my plane
to Belgrade. We also expect that you will render every assistance
possible to facilitate our carrying out this program.
  Respectfully yours"
  Repeated Paris for Secretary 100.
                                                       PATTERSON
811.2360H/8-3046
The Yugoslav Charge (Makiedo) to the Acting Secretary of State

Pov. Br. 1264
  The Charge d'Affaires ad interim of the Federal Peoples Republic
of Yugoslavia presents his compliments to the Honorable the Acting
Secretary of State and has the honor to inform that, in connection
with the continued flights over Yugoslav territory, which constitute
offenses to the sovereignty of our country by military and civilian
forces of the United States of America, the government of the Federal
Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia referred several notes of protest to the
government of the United States of America, requesting that the
unauthorized flights be stopped and that inquiries be undertaken
toward establishing those responsible. In neither respect was a sat-
isfactory answer given nor were measures undertaken to prevent the
f For Ambassador Patterson's report on his conference with Marshal Tito on
August 22 and for text of Marshal Tito's letter of August 23 to the Ambassador,
see ibid., pp. 418-419.



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