MARSHALL TITO

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIV, Issue 6129, 30 July 1948, Page 7

MARSHALL TITO

EARNS COMINFORM’S DISAPPROVAL » - A SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENT The world was startled last week by the news that the Cominform expelled Marshal Tito comments a “Dominion” correspondent. All observers of Yugoslav affairs and all * persons who attempt to guess at what goes on behind the iron curtain were taken by surprise. The surprise was almost universal, although the explanation is simple. Marshall Tito has refused to obey instructions from Russia, whether they come to him direct or through the medium of the organising body of International Communism known as the Cominform. Marshall Tito first came into the ne%vs during the war as the leader of the Communist-controlled Yugoslav Resistance (known as the partisan) movement. This movement was built upon the secret Communist cells which existed before the war in Yugoslavia, as in most other countries. For purposes of Guerrilla- warfare, the Communists had a great advantage; they did not have to go 'underground, as they were underground already. When Russia was attacked by her ally, Germany, in 1941, the Yugoslav partisan movement began its guerrilla activities whiqh spread throughout the country. That such a break with ‘Moscow might come about through the desire of one of Russia’s satellite countries to assert a measure of national independence could always be regarded as a possibility, granted the growth and strength of nationalism’ throughout Europe during this and the last century. What has surprised everybody is that it has happened so soon after the great increases in Russia’s prestige as a world power due to the war. Now that we have had time to reflect upon and analyse the position, it becomes apparent that a break with Moscow was more likely to come from Yugoslavia than any other country, and to see why we must go back a few years. Then a leader of the movement was proclaimed and that leader was Tito. In Communist handbills the partisans were extorted to obey Tito; “Long Live Tito,” was chalked on walls, and the political commissars with companies and platoons of partisans in the field would pass the name of Tito to their following, No information about the man was, however, issued till some six months later, and it is even suggested that two of three Titos might have been tried out for the role until the Communist secret leaders found the right candidate. Be that as it may, six months later the information was released that Tito’s real name was Joseph Broz; a Croat by birth, he had served in a Czech regiment in the. Austrian Army in the 1914-1918 war. He deserted to the Russians, and was in Russia during the Revolution, and while in that country .he joined the Communist Party. He was apparently fully schooled in Communist theory and methods and then sent back to Yugoslavia, where he next appeared as an organiser in sending Yugoslavs to fight on the Government side in the Spanish civil war. Next we see him as the leader of the partisans and finally, in all his glory, as Marshall Tito.

Different from Other Satellites,

There are many features of the Communist rule of Yugoslavia which distinguish it from that of the other satellite countries. Tito built up his organisation at a time during the war when Russia was completely cut off from Yugoslavia, so that directions from the Kremlin could not have been so frequent or so peremtory as they became when the Russian armies reached the Balkans. The Communist Party in Yugoslavia before the war was small in numbers, and it was, therefore, necessary to recruit many new party members without allowing sufficient time for their indoctrination. Only a small proportion, perhaps, were party members before the war. During the war the partisans were in constant touch with the Western allies, who supplied them with food, clothing and arms in large quantities. They even dropped them the last of the notorious V cigarettes which even troops in the Middle East refused to smoke. -Hard up as they were for tobaccoi, jthe partisans could not stomach those cigarettes. During this same period the partisans received, of course, nothing from the Russians (not even V cigarettes), nor have they done so since to any material extent. This policy of the Western Allies, so much criticised, on the grounds that it was supporting Communism in Yugoslavia is perhaps, now having belated results.

With this background to go upon,

what is the significance of "the latest development? In the first place, the writer has no doubt of the truth of the reports. That being so, Tito’s decision to defy the Cominform is a step -of momentous significance. The avowed aim of the Communists is by the establishment of Communist governments in each individual country to produce a complete uniformity of policy. That uniformity, whatever Communist propagandists may find it convenient to say, is produced by centralised control from Russia. Tito has refused to obey the crack of the whip and he has, therefore, chosen a path from which there is no going back. He must either assert his independence, or face death or. exile in Siberia.

The Cominform has called upon the Communists in Yugoslavia to get rid of Tito; but Tito before he dared defy the Russian orders must necessarily have either squared or removed the secret Communist leaders of Yugoslavia. The top Communists are obviously now under Tito’s orders and there is, therefore, no likelihood of the Communists getting rid of the Marshal. As for the rank and file of the party, the Marshal will know how tc make them foe the line. There is no possibility of a dissentient underground, or, should we say, underunderground, except perhaps in the Trieste zone. Communist movement being started, Tito will have the complete dossiers tof all the party members. The defiance of Russia has evidently been popular jn Yugoslavia and has rallied to the Marshall not only the army, but also, it would appear, the anti-Communists, who are probably the majority of the people. The peasant would doubtless reason that, however bad Communist rule might be under Tito, it would be worse still under Russia.

Poser For Russia

What can Russia do about it? It would seem as if she is in a cleft stick. Either she must allow Tito to override the Kremlin’s orders, which means granting him virtual independence, or subdue him by marching in her armies. The latter course, which is physically possible, would be so damaging to international Communism as to make even Stalin hesitate, for it would proclaim to the world, what every contrivance of propaganda has been used to hide—that Communism rests not in the choice of the people but on naked force. It would seem morfe probable that the Kremlin will temporise, hoping to settle Marshal Tito’s hash at a later date. In either event the significance of this news can scarcely be over-emphasised. * One wonders what the local Communists are going to say about it? Obviously nothing much until they receive instructions from abroad.