Who Bosses the Cops?

It was like the old saying, "For want of a nail, the shoe was lost," and so on up to the loss of a kingdom. But it worked in reverse, like this: the Big Four's Foreign Ministers in Manhattan could write all five peace treaties (Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania, Finland) if they could write the Italian treaty; they could write the Italian treaty if they could agree on Trieste; they could agree on Trieste if they could fix the U.N.-appointed governor's powers; they could fix the governor's powers if they could decide who would boss Trieste's police. And nothing was lost so far, except a lot of diplomatic blood, sweat, tears, toil. Cheap at the price, in other words, in the event of success.

Early last week, the Big Four had lightly skipped over several draft treaties, noting areas of agreement, shelving points of disagreement. Mr. Byrnes made a handsome announcement: U.S. occupation authorities in Germany and Austria would return the U.S.-impounded Danubian shipping that Yugoslavia and other Danube countries had long and loudly been clamoring for.* And then, as Messrs. Byrnes and Bevin tackled Mr. Molotov (with French Deputy Foreign Minister Maurice Couve de Murville modestly mediating) on the Italian treaty, Mr. Molotov began to make handsome concessions.

He dropped all talk of a "customs union" and other projects that would have made Trieste a Yugoslav colony. He still insisted on two points: 1) that the government power in the Free Territory of Trieste should reside in a popular assembly rather than in the U.N.-appointed governor; 2) that a definite time limit be set in the treaty for withdrawal of Anglo-U.S. troops.

Mr. Molotov finally agreed that the governor should govern in concert with the assembly; that the governor should control the police in time of "emergency"; that the governor should decide when an emergency existed. In ordinary times, the Russian insisted, the police should be controlled by the assembly. Messrs. Byrnes and Bevin appreciated these concessions, but they were troubled by the idea of divided police allegiance. Under what conditions could the governor hire & fire the police chief? Mr. Molotov said that the police matter could be settled more quickly if the Anglo-U.S. bargainers would set a time limit for troop withdrawal.

And there, this week, the matter rested. For want of a nail, agreement might still be lost; but it seemed on the verge of being won.

*Instead of expressing thanks, Yugoslavia sent the U.S. a bill for $6,750,000 in damages caused by delay in return of the ships.

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