JUGOSLAVS AS CRITICS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28936, 2 July 1959, Page 3

JUGOSLAVS AS CRITICS

Public Opinion Heeded (From a fteute* Correspondent) BELGRADE. Jugoslavs rarely speak out publicly about Government policies, but they often feel free to criticise decisions of local authorities concerning everyday life. Twenty-two poplar trees on one of Belgrade’s main streets, for example, started a token “rebellion” recently. Many citizens complained vigorously when the city council decided to cut down the trees, for long a landmark in front of Parliament building. Complaints from the man-in-the-street also built up recently over the system of distribution of theatre and concert tickets. They became particularly vociferous when many theatre fans failed to get tickets, in spite of long hours of queueing, for performances by the London Old Vic Theatre Company. There was still more.grumbling when the American jazz player, Louis Armstrong, played in Belgrade, and many tickets were reserved for Government and Communist Party officials and were not available at all at the public bo:: office. The strength of the complaints in each case surprised officialdom, which only rarely has its decisions challenged. Opposition to Government policy on basic questions of foreign and internal affairs can be punished by a sentenw up to 20

years’ Imprisonment for “hostile propaganda.”

Nevertheless, even the official Jugoslav press sometimes publishes divergent views on local problems, an action which is tolerated, and even encouraged, by the Government When the Belgrade municipalty decided to cut down the poplars in front of Parliament building, newspapers published protests by artists, journalists professors, students and housewives, who declared that the removal of the trees would spoil the appearance of the city An evening newspaper organised a poll by sending out a reporter to question passers-by. This revealed that only five persons out of 62 were in favour of the council’s decision. The City Council, however, carried out its plan and the poplars were cut down quietly during the night A similar “rebellion” took place at Novi Sad, a town north of Belgrade, when the Town Council there ordered that several buildings should be demolished to make way for a new boulevard. Many citizens protested and a petition with 59 signatures, including members of the Communist Party, was sent to Parliament. Bitter complaints were expressed in the Government-con-trolled local press. Angry letters reached the editors of the newspaper, alleging, among other things, that the decision was “illegal and undemocratic.” As a result the Novi Sad Council was forced temporarily to postpone the plan.