Tito To Be Host To Once Gaoled “Titoist”

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28372, 3 September 1957, Page 13

Tito To Be Host To Once Gaoled “Titoist”

(Rec. 8 p.m.) BELGRADE, Sept. 1. When the Polish Communist leader, Mr Gomulka, pays an official visit to Jugoslavia in the near future, it will be his first meeting with President Tito since the Polish leader was imprisoned as a “Titoist” by the old-style Stalinist Communists who ruled Poland until last October.

Jugopress, the semi-official news agency closely identified with the Jugoslav Foreign Ministry, said today that the visit would be a “very significant event in the relations of the two Socialist countries.” Jugoslav Communists make no secret of their deep admiration for Mr Gomulka, who is the only Communist leader, apart from President Tito, who has successfully challenged the Kremlin and survived to develop a national road to socialism.

In their talks. President Tito is expected to give full backing to

Some sources believe that President Tito will also press the Jugoslav view that the Soviet Communist Party leader, Mr Khrushchev, is engaged in positive efforts to remove the legacies of Stalinism and should therefore be supported. The Jugoslav leader is expected to emphasise that the Jugoslav and Polish road to socialism can attract and influence other Communist countries only if they move with great caution.

Meanwhile, in Warsaw, the Polish press these days appears to have its attention fixed to the West particularly across the ocean to the United States.

Observers say this has been more noticeable during the last 10 days than at any time previously.

Today any news of relations between Poland and the United States—even indirect news—is featured in the Government and Communist Party newspapers. . The impression from a general survey of the Polish press over

the iast two weeks is that, by comparison, news about Russia and relations with Russia seems to have receded into the background. Clearly underlying the present intense Polish interest in America is the hope that this great and wealthy country will help Poland in her present economic difficulties.

It is recognised that any further American help to Poland is tied up with continued American interest in the survival of the Gomolka regime, which has declared a policy of independence and national sovereignty. Official Polish opinion reiterates that Poland stays, and will stay, within the Socialist camp, led by the Soviet Union. The aim. therefore, is East-West coexistence.