Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-07-12
Report From Belgrade
By NelcboId Noyes, Jr.,
Star War Correspondent.

after day, the story of the part being
played by America and Britain on the
western front was almost invariably
confined TO the text of the conmunique,
buried too deep to attract attention.
The war in the Pacific, then as now,
received scant notice
Il y
Sava Kosanovitch, Yugoslav Minister
of Information, told me 1t was regret
tably true that the advent of peace had
not remedied this unbalanced presenta-
ton. The trouble was, he explained,
that since communication facilities with
Russia are more extensive than those
with the west, Yugoslav papers receive
more news from Russia than they do
from us.
officials of our OWL, working to sup
ply Yugoslav papers with news from
America, take somewhat different view
of the matter. They say they turn
over quantities of copy to the Yugoslav
press every day, and that so little of it
appears in print they feel sometimes as
though they are writing letters in the
sand.
Nor are locally originated stories on
international affairs always handled
Trieste crisis was an understandable but
fragrant example. Belgrade papers con-
sistently drummed up the issue as one
involving only Yugoslavia'S ultimate
claims on Istria and Trieste At no time
did they hint at the basis of the Amer
lean and British objection, which, of
course, had to do only with the method
by which they were seeking to enforce
those claims.
The fact is that we and the British
have been getting pretty bad press
in Yugoslavia, and not just on the
Trieste issue either.
BY way of illustration On the same
day that Politika ran an editorial re-
ferring to Russia as not only ''the great
est country in the world but also as
1.-The leading power of the worlds de-
mocracy," Borba featured dispatch
accusing the Americans of keeping $500
liberated Yugoslav prisoners of war
locked behind wire at Dachau, where
they are living under hygienic condi-
tons similar to those under SIS admin
istration," and where every day
means one step nearer death"
Il
There can be little doubt, on the
other hand, that the public in Belgrade
Is eager for accurate information on the
way things are going in the outside
world. owl has set up show window
outside its Office with pictures and ex-
tensive captions descriptive of Amer
lean life and the American war effort.
There is crowd in front of this window
at almost any hour.
One Belgrade weekly, the Agrarian
party's Selo, has shown an unusual
interest in the publication of news from
the west. Alone among Belgrade news
papers now publishing, Selo has, of
late, been having significant trouble
getting paper. This journal recently
astounded everybody by coming out with
an article on the role of the opposition
in the English parliamentary system.
What most surprised observers was
the fact that such story had got by
the government censorship. OF course,
the only direct censorship is supposed
to be for military security. However,
since I am assured that foreign CORE
spondents operate under the same CEN
sorship rules as do local reporters,
speak with feeling when say that it
is amazing how far the phrase censor
ship for military security" can be
stretched.
There is nothing which could conceiv-
able impinge on military security in this
article, for example-but look at the
dateline.