TITO ALLEGES PLOT AGAINST JUGOSLAVIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 September 1949, Page 6

TITO ALLEGES PLOT AGAINST JUGOSLAVIA

BELGRADE, Sept 24.—Marshal Tito, in the absence of his Foreign Minister (Mr Edvard. Kardelj), has personally handed to the Hungarian Ambassador (Mr Kerestes) a Note accusing Russia and Hungary of organising a plot to overthrow the Jugoslav Government and replace it with “another group servile to the Soviet.”

The Note also accused Hungary of “a warmongering act” in the final trial and conviction of Laszlo Rajk, The Note said that the trial was “a judicial burlesque and a monstrous provocation covering openly aggressive and subversive intentions towards a neighbouring country and its Government.” It added: “The trial is a heavy blow to international cooperation, and will contribute to the creation of a war psychosis in the world.”

The Note also said: “The Hungarian Government has joined a plot organised by the Soviet Government with the aim of overthrowing the lawful Government of Jugoslavia and of disrupting the Socialist order in Jugoslavia and imposing a Government upon the peoples of Jugoslavia which would .be made up of a group servile to the Soviet and which would accept unequal relations of subjugation such as the Soviet Government has imposed upon Hungary and other people’s democracies.”

The Note set out various actions which, it said, the Hungarian Government had carried out against Jugoslavia, including “the blackest police terror” against Jugoslav minorities, ‘armed provocation” on the JugoslavHungarian border, the violation of air space, the infiltration of agents, and the arrest and maltreatment of Jugoslav diplomats. The Note added that Hungary's denunciation of the economic agreement with Jugoslavia had inflicted considerable damage on the Jugoslav economy. «w • > '