VISITOR’S IMPRESSIONS OF VIGOROUS COUNTRY

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25709, 22 January 1949, Page 6

VISITOR’S IMPRESSIONS OF VIGOROUS COUNTRY

JUGOSLA VIA

(Specially Written for “The Press.”)

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J. R. L. CAMPBELL]

In the late summer of 1947, I was in Jugoslavia with a party of* about 50 English people helping in the construction of the “Youth Railway’’ in the Bosnian valley, between Samac and Serajevo, a distance of some 200 kilometres.

This line was built almost entirely by volunteer labour during the summer months, the workers being members of the N.O.J. (the Governmentsponsored Jugoslav youth organisation), together with contingents invited from various other countries, the total numbering 180,000 men and women, working under, the direction of professional designers and foremen. We were all impressed by the tremendous enthusiasm with which the Jugoslavs worked at their task; and indeed the vigour of the drive for reconstruction was apparent throughout the country, in contrast with the atmosphere of tiredness in Italy and France.

The workers were divided into “brigades,” and liaison between the Jugoslav and foreign brigades was maintained by interpreters assigned to each foreign brigade. Each brigade had its own hutted camp along its assigned stretch of the line. On one side of the British brigade was a brigade of Jugoslav university students; on the other, a brigade of Greeks, who had to leave Greece owing to their sympathies with General Markos, the rebel loader and who had been allowed to enter Jugoslavia by the authorities and been given land on which to build a village of their own, which some of our party visited later. Over their camp hung a sign in Serbo-Croat: “Let the AngloAmericans quit Greece.” Despite this, they got on better with the British than anybody else. Beyond them were more Jugoslavs, mineworkers, who were building a tunnel. In Praise of Tito Parties marched to and from work, singing as they went. The Jugoslavs mostly sang songs in praise of Tito, and some of us thought that too much of this might result in a danger of the N.O.J. becotning a second Hitler Youth. The Jugoslavs also had an embarrassing fondness for shouting slogans in unison, in which pastime they expected us to join them on social occasions when one brigade entertained another in the evening. Most of them were harmless, if pretentious, such as “Long Live the World Federation of Democratic Youth.” (This august body held a congress in Prague last year, before the Communist coup.) The general atmosphere in Jugoslavia was friendly, however, and people seemed anxious to talk to us. I was told that since the war the teaching of German and French had been replaced by English and Russian in the schools. No restriction was placed on our movements, and we were able to wander about where we pleased. I spent one afternoon visiting a Moslem village in the heart of the nills, a few miles from the railway site. In spite of the warm welcome extended to us on arrival, and assurances of Jugoslav desire for friendship with England by various speakers who visited our camp from time to time, the newspapers, especially the national comic paper "Keremfuh.” j were filled with virulently anti-British ; and anti-American cartoons. Most i

Jugoslavs had an entirely mistaken conception of the British Government and its policy, and this misconception was strengthened rather than corrected by marpr British visitors, most of whom were Communists, or \ near Communists. Before leaving Jugoslavia I spent foyr days in Zagreb, and three in Ljubljana. Zagreb is one of the oldest towns in the country, parts of it going back a thousand years. Some of us were there entertained to the Serb national drink, raki, by the VicePresident of Croatia. Portraits of Tito, usually flanked by portraits of Stalin and occasionally other Communist dignitaries, were numerous in squares, restaurants, and other public places. Official proclamations still ended with the words “Smrt Fasizmu Sloboda Narodu” (Death to Fascism, freedom to the people). Few Police Seen There were many soldiers to be seen in the towns, with a high proportion of officers, who wore Russlan-style uniforms, with knee boots and heavy epaulettes. We saw few policemen, on the other hand, which might have been because private cars are virtually non-existent, so that there is little traffic on the roads, and accordingly less need of police to control it. Many qf the trucks bore UNRRA markings. We saw several squads of German prisoners, who appeared well fed and well treated. One squad which I saw being marched through a small town were lustily singing a German march- • ing song. A group of prisoners on Ljubljana railway station told us that they were employed on constructional work, and were given the same scale of rations as Jugoslav workers on the same job. In the country towns the people wore the picturesque traditional Serb dress on Sundays when going to church; the churches were well filled, though the proportion of young people was small, and many people wore crucifixes round their necks.

People in the main were well clad and well shod. Clothing and food were cheaper than in most European countries. Both were rationed, and extra coupons were given to workmen attaining a certain standard of production, though I am not certain if this was the case in all industries.

We left Jugoslavia with the impression that most of the people supported the Government, though this was perhaps due more to the personal prestige of Tito, and the war records of Communists as Partisan leaders, than to any particular preference for Communism as a form of Government. In the country the peasants had benefited by the land reforms, which included the breaking up and division of large estates into smaller sections, but not the introduction of collective farming. I w-as told that farmers had to sell 70 per cent, of their produce to the State at a fixed price, but could dispose of the remainder as they wished. The Communist members of our party returned to England firmly convinced as regards Jugoslavia that it there was a heaven On earth it was this. While I could not go as far in my own view. I certainly felt that this was one European country on the road to recovery.