Morgan Line

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The Morgan Line was the line of demarcation set up after World War II in the Julian March, which prior to the war belonged to the Kingdom of Italy, between two military administrations: the one of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia on the east, and those of the Allied Military Government on the west. The Allied Military Government was composed of both the British Element Trieste Forces (BETFOR) troops from the British Commonwealth and the Trieste United States Troops (TRUST) from the United States.

The Morgan Line was set up in order to established a temporary boundary between the Yugoslav and Allied administrations in the region known as the Julian March, which was contended by Italy and Yugoslavia. The line was called after the British representative at the negotiations which resulted in the demarcation, Lieutenant General Sir William Duthie Morgan. The agreement, achieved by Lieutenant Morgan, divided the Julian March into two zones, the zone A under Allied military administration and the zone B under the administration of the Yugoslav People's Army. The zone A comprised the western portion of the region, which included the current Italian provinces of Trieste and Gorizia, a strip of territory between the current Slovene-Italian border and the Soča river, the Brda region, the lower Vipava Valley (more or less the current Slovene municipalities of Šempeter-Vrtojba, Renče-Vogrsko, Miren-Kostanjevica and most of the municipality of Nova Gorica except the Banjšice Plateau and the villages of Čepovan, Lokve and Trnovo), most of the Kras plateau (corresponding more or less to the current Slovene municipalities of Sežana and Komen), and the Istrian villages of Plavje, Spodnje Škofije, Jelarji and Hrvatini. The city of Pula was also part of the zone A. The Yugoslav-administred zone B extended to almost two-thirds of the region, including the city of Rijeka, most of the Istrian peninsula, the islands of Cres and Lošinj and the eastern portion of the Slovene Littoral.

The Morgan Line ceased to exist on September 15 1947, when the Treaty of Paris came into effect. The Treaty established the border between Italy and Yugoslavia, which is identical with the current between Slovenia and Italy in the northern sections, while in the southern part the Free Territory of Trieste was established. The Territory was divided into zone A and zone B and the demarcation between the two was identical with the Morgan Line. In 1954, when the Free Territory was abolished and the the villages of Plavje, Spodnje Škofije, Jelarji and Hrvatini annexed to Yugoslavia, the Morgan Line ceased to exist completely.