Letters Written by Dr. Ante Mandić to the District National Liberation Committee for Istria (1944)

Abstract

The author publishes four letters written by Dr. Ante Mandić, a member of ZAVNOH and AVNOJ and one of the more prominent Yugoslavia-oriented bourgeois politicians, to the members of the District National Liberation Committee for Istria. The letters were written in the period from June to October 1944, i.e. at a time when an intensive international diplomatic struggle was being waged for the recognition of the decisions made in Pazin concerning the sucession of Istria from Italy and its annexation to Croatia and Yugoslavia. In these letters Mandić sets forth his understanding of international relations as they concern the issue of the border between Yugoslavia and Italy, discusses the results achieved in this respect by the Yugoslav Committee during World War I, warns against the danger of autonomist movements, primarily in Rijeka, and provides information on the military-political situation in Yugoslavia, on relations with neigbouring countries and on his contacts with members of Allied missions in Yugoslavia. In the introduction, the author provides a brief biography of Dr. Ante Mandić.