Evening star., 1945-07-09

(This Is the first OF series OF
articles on conditions in YngoslaDia.
The second wfH appear tousorroio.)
ROME (By Air Courier The nois-
lest thing in Yugoslavia these days is
almost certainly the public radio In the
central square In Belgrade.
At $50 am, cluster of loudspeakers
starts broadcasting the official version
of the news. The program goes on for
long time and, interspersed with mu-
sical selections, is presented at frequent
intervals throughout the day. Presum-
ably to avoid wear and tear on their
voices, a man and a woman take turns
reading paragraphs.
1t is hard to sleep in Belgrade. For
although there is strict midnight cur
few, inevitably few people are author
lied to be out after midnight. All over
town, at street corners and entrances
to important buildings, partisan guards
wait in the shadows to challenge them.
The word halt is "Stoy." The guards
do not say this word-they shout it as
loudly and angrily as possible. There
follows an exchange during which the
guard continues to roar as though he
were talking to somebody at the end of
the block. Sometimes he is. Wherever
you are In the downtown area, this
happens about once every five minutes
in the street below you. Toward morn
ing things quiet down little, before
the radio starts.
And yet, generally speaking Belgrade
is extraordinarily quiet these days.
~ y
was there recently expected it to
be an exciting time. Peace must have
meant a lot to these people, for the war
had been terrible for them. One might
think that some show of real Joy at their
release would have been unavoidable.
But saw little evidence of Joy.
There we're grounds, too, for differ
ent kind of excitement The crisis over
Trieste was at its height during my
visit, and the government-cont
press could in no way have been accused
of playing down the issue. Quite the
contrary. But whereas in Rome the
issue had been one of occasionally
riotous interest, the people Of Belgrade
were apathetic. The radio blared in
the central square, and 1t was as though
somebody were banging on a broken
drum.
There was a stiffness In the atmos-
phere that is not easily described or
explained. From the balcony of my
room in the Hotel Balkan l watched
the evening crowds milling through the
streets. The color was there, and the
movement. but something was missing.
You could watch for several minutes
before you suddenly realized that it
was a good deal like a movie of which
the sound track has gone dead.
Marshal Tito was everywhere. Nearly
every shop in town had his picture in
the show window, even if there were
no goods on display. The government
supplied the pictures, was told do
not know whether the shopkeeper
bought them or not. Almost always
there was a companion picture Of
Stain. Roosevelt, Truman and Church
Ill were hard to find.
Bands OF soldiers sang of Tito as they
marched through the streets: so did
little children on their way TO school.
Whenever anything happened, the
children were much in evidence. One
day / watched four energetic young
schoolmarms herd about so tots into
line on the sidewalk in the square.
where they waited two hours for a
parade to pass. Then, for another two
hours, they chanted squeaky cheers they
learned in school, while their teachers
ran up and down the line directing the
operation, and the soldiers marched.