Eighty Years Ago This Week

    Tito backed down in the first major confrontation between communist and democratic states. Yugoslav partisan forces had occupied the Italian port of Trieste where they conducted a reign of terror against Italian Fascists and non-communist Slovenes. None of the various agreements between Stalin and the US or UK had specified a post-war frontier and the Yugoslav leader Marshal Tito hoped to include Trieste in his country. The British, however, had major military forces with heavy weapons notably the 2nd New Zealand division. Tito agreed with General Alexander, the British commander, to withdraw his men. The Yugoslavs, though, were left with the territory of Trieste's hinterland east of the so-called Morgan Line, which still belongs to the Yugoslav successor state Slovenia. A proposal to allow candidates serving in the armed forces to wear their uniforms while campaigning in Britain's general election provoked furious protest from Labour in Parliament. It would have ...