Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-08-22

Sir:
The American Embassy in Bel
grade has informed me Of the con-
tents of the message received from
the Yugoslav foreign office on Au-
gust 20. The replies of the Yugoslav
government to our inquiries are
wholly unsatisfactory to the Gov
eminent and shocking to the people
of the United States.
Your government expresses regret
because of what you call an I'M
happy accident" Your government
is aware that this was no accident;
that fighter plane of your govern
ment deliberately fired upon a pas
Isenger plane of the United States
Government. Your government
states that one reason for the
accident" was that since August
10th there have been A instances
where American planes flew over
Yugoslav territory. The records
show that since August 10 the total
number of flights scheduled for that
route was only 80. These flights
were made under instructions to
avoid flying over Yugoslav territory
and if'in any instances plane was
over Yugoslav territory it was only
because the pilot was forced by bad
weather outside of the corridor.
Attack Not the First.
But this attack of August 10 was
not the first. On August 9 United
States passenger plane while in the
vicinity of Klagenfurt was fired
upon by fighter plane of the Yugo-
slav government. 1t was forced to
make crash landing. When it
landed. the crew and passengers
were taken into custody by Yugo-
slav authorities and are still held
as prisoners of the Yugoslav govern
ment.
For some days the representative
of the United States Government
was unable to communicate with
these American citizens. Finally he
was permitted to do so but only in
the presence of the military authori-
ties of Yugoslavia. Twelve days
have passed and these American
citizens are still held by Yugo-
slavia.
The message now received from
our representative indicates that on
the 10th Of August when this second
passenger plane was fired upon,
some If not all of the occupants
were killed. They met their death
not by accident" but by the de-
liberate acts of Yugoslav authori-
ties. sThe excuse given for taking
the lives Of these American citizens
Is that the plane in which they
were travelling was few kilometers
inside OF Yugoslav territory. Your
government asserts that for IL min
utes prior to the attack the pilot of
the plane was invited" to land. At
the time you claim the pilot was
invited to land the records at Kla-
genfurt show the pilot advised the
Klagenfurt station that he was over
Klagenfurt, which is well outside of
Yugoslav territory, and was all
right.
outrageous ActS.
These outrages acts have been
perpetrated by a government that
processes to be a friendly nation.
Until we have had opportunity to
confer with the survivors OF these
two attacks and we receive such
other evidence as is available. we
make no statement as to the exact
location of the two planes when
they were attacked.
Regardless Of whether the planes
were a short distance within or
without the corridor, they were un-
armed passenger planes en- route to
Udine, in Italy. Their fight. In no
way constituted threat to the SOW
ereignty of Yugoslavia. The use of
force by Yugoslavia under the cir
cumstances was without the slight
est justification in international law,
was clearly inconsistent with rela-
tons between friendly states, and
was a plain violation of the obliga-
tons resting upon Yugoslavia under
the Charter of the United Nations
not to use forge except in self
defense.
At no time did the Yugoslav gov
eminent advise the United States