Morgan Line

The Morgan Line established a temporary boundary between the Yugoslav and Allied administrations in the region of Julian March (Venezia Giulia), contended by Italy and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and also to reduce the possibility of combat between Allied and Yugoslav forces in the area.

The line was named after the British representative at the negotiations in Duino that resulted in the demarcation, Lieutenant General Sir William Duthie Morgan.

Morgan, chief of staff to Field Marshal Sir Harold Alexander, Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, had been sent to Belgrade on May 7 to remind Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito that Yugoslav forces were in violation of a February 1945 written agreement between Tito and Alexander in occupying the territory.

The Yugoslav-administered Zone B extended to almost two-thirds of the region, including the city of Rijeka/ Fiume, most of the Istrian peninsula (with the exception of the town of Pula/Pola and the municipalities of Muggia and Dolina), the Cres-Lošinj/ Cherso - Lussino archipelago, and the eastern portion of the Slovene Littoral.

The Treaty established the border between Italy and Yugoslavia in the northern sections of the contended territory, as well as the border between Yugoslavia and the Free Territory of Trieste established as new independent, sovereign State under a provisional regime of Government[1] under the direct responsibility of the United Nations Security Council[2] in its southern part.