Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-07-11

This Is the third OF a series of
articles on conditions in YugoslaDiG.
The fourth ,DiH appear tomorrow
ROME (By Air Courier) The po-
litical education of the people Of Yugo-
slavia is being carefully attended to
by the powers that be In Belgrade.
They are seeing to 1t that everybody
quickly learns the lessons which will
make him or her safe and we'll
disciplined citizen.
The scale of organization seems re-
markable to an outsider. Streets In
Belgrade have their secretaries" who
keep tabs on the political activity of
citizens within that unit. The working
units on the adult education level. how
ever, are the sections" into which the
city is divided.
Political meetings are held by sec
tons, In some of them perhaps twice
a week, In others more often. If you
are a Yugoslav living In Belgrade, this
is what happens:
A representative of one OF the Com
munist-dominated patriotic organiza-
tions-probably the League of Anti-Fas-
cist Women-calls at your house checks
up on who is there and informs you of
the time and place OF the meeting. II
you do not attend. you can probably
expect second call at which you will
be asked to explain your absence. If
you miss too many meetings, you will
find yourself a candidate for the at
tention OF Osna. the governments secret
police organization. For those who do
not adhere to discipline, as Finance
Minister Sreten Zujovitch put it so
clearly In a recent speech, ARE I'M
doubtedly siding with the enemies of
our country"
At these meetings. which usually last
at least two hours, you will listen to
the things every good Yugoslav should
know. II you happen to disagree with
q current policy OF the government you
will, of course, keep your opinion to
yourself
Not content with this political forced
feeding Of the adult population, the
government, 1t seems, Is also attracted
to the idea Of bending the twig early.
One day during my visit to Belgrade
I ducked into the doorway of shop
to get away from a sudden cloudburst
which had broken over the city. On
my heels came nice-looking boy per-
haps II or IS years old. In the Sc
cluston of that doorway, cut off from
the rest of the world until the rain
stopped, we discovered we both talked
French and introduced ourselves. 1t
was then learned what ! know about
Yugoslav schools.
am telling 1t this way to emphasize
two points. First, I want to make it
clear that my information in this in
stance, although I was able to check
most Of 1t later, came from a source
which was certainly not official and
probably not unbiased Secondly, I
want to put 1t on record that this was
the only time during my stay in the
city when talked politics with any
Yugoslav who was not in office in the
government. For a private Yugoslav
citizen to air his views to a representa-
tive Of the foreign press is dangerously
unwise.
The schools, my informant told me,
had been functioning for some time
up through high school, but the uni
versity in the city was still undergoing
an theological overhaul and had not
yet reopened. The same was true, he
thought, Of the universities at Ljubljana
and Zagreb.
He told me that his little sister went
to what would correspond TO our kin