DEPARTMENT OF STATE Memorandum of Conversation
Date: July 1, 1949
Subject:
Participants: Sava N. Kosanovic, Yugoslav Ambassador The Secretary Mr. Campbell - SE
Copies to: EUR NEA ITP
The Ambassador opened the conversation by saying that he was leaving the next day for Belgrade and wished to pay a courtesy call. He said that he had not been home since the previous November, intimating that this trip was a matter of routine consultation.
Ambassador Kosanovic said that he wished to express his appreciation of what we had done recently for the improvement of economic relations between the two countries. I mentioned that US-Yugoslav trade had increased considerably in the past few months as compared with last year. He said that he was gratified at this increase, mentioning that Yugoslav's commercial relations with Western countries were now of particular importance. I asked him to what extent trade had fallen off with countries of the Eastern bloc. He replied that it had fallen off very much, Czechoslovakia and Hungary having stopped all trade and the USSR having cut its trade with Yugoslavia by seven-eighths. He said that in this situation the Yugoslav Government was especially anxious for expanding economic relations with the West.
I mentioned that I had talked recently with Ambassador Cannon in Paris. He took the occasion to voice the opinion that Ambassador Cannon had done a great deal to improve relations between the two countries on the local scene. I suggested that he talk with Mr. Cannon in Belgrade on any matters of Yugoslav-American relations which appeared to warrant discussion. I suggested in particular that he might wish to discuss Yugoslav aid to the Greek guerrillas. The ambassador said that he had followed this problem closely since it first arose in the Security Council in 1946. He said that he did not believe that Yugoslavia, at any stage, had done anything more than receive refugees from the guerilla side and maintain them in camps; he thought that no material aid such as arms from Yugoslavia had actually been sent into Greece. I suggested, and he agreed, that it would be a good thing for him to look into this question on his return and to discuss it with Ambassador Cannon. I said that naturally the cessation of Yugoslav aid would be very helpful to us.
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