YUGOSLAV CRISIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27523, 18 October 1950, Page 7

YUGOSLAV CRISIS

Serious Food Shortage

TITO CUTS RATIONS OF “SPECIAL GROUP”

NZPA Special Correspondent Rec. 8.45 p.m. LONDON. Oct. 17. The serious nature of the food crisis facing Yugoslavia has been emphasised by Marshal Tito’s latest decree which cuts the rations of bread, meat and other items for people in. the highest rationing category by about onequarter. This means that miners, railway workers and “ intellectuals engaged in important work” will now be reduced to about lilb of bread a day and about 121 b of meat a month. Other extra austerity measures include the restriction on the use of petrol by State-owned cars, which represents about 75 per cent, of all vehicles in the country. Marshal Tito has also ordered that no milk must be consumed by ordinary ration-card holders until the needs of babies, expectant mothers and sick people have been met. The decree, which Is aimed at saving food and household necessities and ensuring a fair deal for all, does away with the system borrowed from' Russia rif special shops and special prices for Cabinet Ministers, senior Government and Communist Party officials, and other important persons. It is a direct result of the disastrous harvest and the effects of the Cominform blockade which have raised the threat of real hardship for the Yugoslav people.

'Western observers regard the decree as one of Tito’s main domestic acts since his split with the Soviet Union, because it places the greater part of the Yugoslav Communist Party’s 500,000 members on the same footing as the rest of the country’s population of 16,000,000. and strikes at many other acknowledged abuses of Marshal Tito’s Government. It will go into effect in two weeks and provides for heavy monetary fines and prison terms for violators.

Borba, the Yugoslav Government newspaper, calls it an act of “ great political significance because il abolishes all unjustified privileges in the field of supplies.” The drought in Yugoslavia has been the subject lately of discussions between Britain and the United States, who are reviewing the prospects of economic assistance. The United States Secretary of State, Mr Dean Acheson, said last week that the United States no doubt would have to send food to Yugoslavia. The British Ambassador in Belgrade,. Sir Charles Peake, arrived in London this week to discuss the situation with the British Government.