DIVISIONS IN YUGOSLAVIA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 58, 9 March 1944, Page 4

DIVISIONS IN YUGOSLAVIA

DEPORTS that the Chetniks and Partisans of Yugoslavia had composed their differences have turned out to be premature. The differences between these two parties appear to be so fundamental that not even the stress of war seems likely to reconcile them, and if anything recent reports indicate that the hostility between the two grows more and more bitter. Yugoslavia is in that unhappy position of having no less than five Governments, each of which claims full authority in some, or every, part of the sundered Kingdom. From the largest group numerically, the Partisan Army, has emerged the National Liberation Government, organised by the Parliamentary leader Ivan Ribar, with Marshal Josip Bro2 or Brozovich (Tito to his friends) as Premier and Commander-in-Chief. General Draha Mihailovich leads the Chetniks and heads the forces which proclaim their direct allegiance to King Peter and the Government in exile in Cairo. The Germans have two puppet rulers in Ante Pavel itch in Croatia and General Milan Neditch in Serbia. A new Government has now been formed in Montenegro under Lyubo Vyksanovitch, apparently another made-in-Germany puppet. A Free Yugoslav Committee has also been formed in London, but this organisation does not claim to be a Government; it supports the aims and claims of the Partisans. Tito's Government refuses to recognise the Cairo Government, but it does not expressly declare itself against King Peter; in fact, recent indications point to the probability of its giving him a chance, a delegation from the National Liberation Army having recently visited Cairo to suggest that he go to the liberated mountain area and establish himself as a guerilla monarch. The invitation has not been accepted so far, the Cairo Government being unwilling to drop Mihailovitch, its Minister of War, who recently invited Tito's men to desert and join him. The British Government was ready to mediate, but found it impossible to make any progress, and it has recently been giving much more assistance to the Partisans than to the Chetnik group, for the simple reason, as it was explained, that the resistance of the Partisans to the Germans is much greater. General Sir Henry M. Wilson, Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, and Tito get along very well together, and increasingly heavy supplies are being forwarded to the mountain area which Tito controls, the assistance formerly given to Mihailovich having been diverted there.

The Partisans claim that Mihailovich is playing Germany's game, and that his resistance is a mere bluff put up to hide collaboration. As a result there has been much stiff fighting between the two groups, to what extent with German assistance cannot be said. The claim of Mihailovich is that until the Allied effort in the West assumes full blast it is better to conserve his forces until they can come in on the enemy's retreating flank. Tito, on the other hand, stands for unremitting guerilla action. He has struck constantly against German concentrations, Hitler announced recently that the whole force was to be wiped out, and he sent many divisions against Tito. Despite the lack of arms and transport, the Germans have been hurled back time after time, with heavy losses. Many divisions have been immobilised in the effort to guard the Partisans, but the German soldiers, sent there for a "rest," find that the rest cure is more unsettling and dangerous than most of the" fighting fronts. If the Partisans' estimate of Mihailovich is at fault, and if the real difference between the two parties is merely one of military strategy, it should be possible to get both into line, but present indications are that the division between the two is so wide and deep that it will not be bridged, and that the Germans will be able to continue to use one against the other in fratricidal strife, thus holding down a hostile area with much less strength than if it were united.