YUGOSLAVS LEAVE AUSTRALIA TO WORK FOR TITO

Grey River Argus, 21 January 1948, Page 5

YUGOSLAVS LEAVE AUSTRALIA TO WORK FOR TITO

Expecting War the Year After Next

SYDNEY, January 20.

A Yugoslav liner, the Partizanka, sailed from here for the Yugoslav port of Split, the vessel carrying 246 Yugoslavs, formerly resident in Australia, and she will embark 500 more at Freemantle. Chanting farewell songs in their native language, the passengers and crew of the Partizanka lined the rails as the ship sailed. Demonstrations of enthusiasm were confined to small groups of Communists who gave the clenched fist salute and shouted: “Tito, zivio Tito!” in a manner familiar to the New Zealanders who were in Trieste in 1945.

There is a strong suggestion that many Australian Yugoslavs will return here after a period of intensive political indoctrination. Manifestoes, printed in Yugoslav, and headed “War by 1950”, are circulating among Sydney’s Yugoslav population. There is a strong feeling among the Slavs that war is inevitable, and that the Slavs will win.

The manifesto says that Yugoslavia needs every man. and adds significantly: “Your relatives will be very sorry if you disobey. You know your own fate if you betray your fatherland”. More than 50 of the passengers were young men unable to pay their fares who had an agreement with the Tito Government to work on the land or on the roads as payment. One of them said: “I was born in Brisbane and my grandfather is an Australian. My family thinks I am mad to return to our homeland, but I have a cousin who fought in Tito's partisans, who tells me it is the finest country in the world for young men. I am a Communist and I shall come back here before long when Australia is Communist”. Already 300 more Australian Yugoslavs have booked for the next voyage of the Partizanka.