Diplomatic Triumph

At long last, the fuse was pulled from the explosive problem of Trieste. In London this week representatives of Italy and Yugoslavia would put their signatures to a settlement dividing the coveted Free Territory of Trieste between them and granting Yugoslavia facilities in its seaport. The settlement was a triumph of patient U.S. diplomacy, topped by the personal intervention of President Eisenhower with the right move at the right time.

For nine years, partitioned Trieste ticked like a time bomb at the head of the Adriatic, disturbing the air of Italian politics, setting Italians against Yugoslavs, stirring bloody riots and saber-rattling demonstrations. In 1948, disgusted with repeated Russian vetoes of every proposed neutral governor, the three Western powers renounced the Big Four plan to establish Trieste as a free territory under a U.N. governor and declared instead that the entire 285-square-mile coastal strip should be given to Italy. But when Tito broke with the Kremlin, the West deemed it expedient to renege on the promise to Italy. There the matter rested until last year.

Danger & Opportunity. Recognizing the Trieste situation both as a danger and an opportunity to improve U.S.-Italian relations and strengthen the faltering, pro-U.S. Christian Democrats, U.S. Ambassador to Italy Clare Boothe Luce signaled Washington into a sense of urgency about Trieste. Washington and London decided to break the stalemate, but their first attempt failed. Assured by Anthony Eden that Tito would not object, the U.S. and Britain announced last October that they were withdrawing their troops from Zone A forthwith and turning it over to the Italians. Marshal Tito flared with anger over the failure to consult him and threatened war if Italian troops moved into Trieste.

The British and Americans let the tumult die down, then tried again last February, this time in private. It was a process of wearing down the touchy Yugoslavs. U.S. Ambassador to Austria Llewellyn Thompson and British Assistant Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Harrison got together almost surreptitiously in London to confer with Tito's representative. For four months, Tito's man haggled. The problem was to give Tito slightly more than Yugoslav-occupied Zone B, but so little more that the Italian government would not balk.

Tito's demands alternated between the extravagant and the trivial. He demanded corridors to the sea, large chunks of Italian-held territory, extraterritorial rights to and inside the port of Trieste. He fought over an acre here, a playground there, a rock quarry, a beach. But slowly his demands were beaten down to a strip of land one mile long and 400 yards wide running through the village of Lazaretto. The Italians, who stayed out of the London talks but were kept closely informed, entered some objections. Then Tito shifted some more.

By midsummer, the negotiations were stalled. Ambassador Luce hustled off to Washington, persuaded President Eisenhower to take a direct hand. His decision was to send Deputy Under Secretary of State Robert Murphy on a stalemate-breaking mission to Tito last month. With Murphy went a personal letter to Tito from Eisenhower.