Evening star., 1948-07-01
Tito's Rebellion

lie surprise pdCkdSe WHICH, udS Ueci
handed the world in the form of Marshal
Titos revolt against the Cominform still
should be plainly labeled Handle With
Caution. For this seeming rupture of
the Communist empire embraces so many
uncertainties and so many unknown fac
tors that its full significance cannot be
appraised at this time.
Subject to this reservation, however it
is safe to conclude that Yugoslavia's de-
fance of Moscow is not new kind of
Communist hoax, as some seem to believe.
For whatever the final outcome may oe
this break between Belgrade and the
Kremlin has already done so much dam
age to the Communist bid for domination
of Eastern Europe that it cannot be ex-
planned away on the ground that it is
merely another strange quirk in the party
line.
The most obvious and perhaps the most
important conclusion to be drawn from
the Cominform's attack on the Yugoslav
Communists, and the reply of the latter,
is that there is an inherent conflict be-
tween the international program of the
Kremlin and the national interests of the
satellite countries. This might not be too
serious matter in the case of a satellite
nation under the control of a stooge who
was perfectly willing to take orders from
Moscow, and who could do so without
losing his grip on his own people. But
this, evidently, is not true of Tito. He has
to contend, in the first place, with the
fierce nationalism of the Serbian peasants
He has had to swallow the disappointment
of not getting either Trieste or Salonika.
lem of how to carry out his fve-year pro-
gram for the industrialization of Yugo-
slavia without getting any appreciable
help from Russia, while being foreclosed
at the same time by Moscow dictated
policy from substantial aid from the
Western countries. In addition there is
ground to suspect that Tito is not cut
from the conventional pattern of puppet
rulers. He seems to have ideas and ambi-
tions of his own, and that, If true, would
be enough in itself to bring him within
the range of Marshal Stalin's emphatic
diSpleasure.
this raises is what Moscow's next move
will be. The greeting accorded Tito when
he made public appearance in Belgrade
yesterday indicates that he retains his
grip or Yugoslavia. The army and the
secret police evidently remain loyal to him.
So the question is what Stain will do now.
One possibility is that the row, on the
surface at least, will be patched up and
there are suggestions in the verbal ex-
changes that both parties are trying to
avoid final and open break But it will
be no easy matter to quiet the troubled
waters. Yugoslavia, in effect, has called
for Balkan federation with Albania and
Bulgaria, and is putting out feelers for an
understanding with the west. The Comm
form criticism, which every Communist
will recognize as dictate from Moscow,
has been denounced by Tito's aides as a
composition of Lies" and "slander" These
will be bitter pills for Stain to swallow,
and If he takes the dose, he runs grave
risk that his prestige will be undermined
in all of the satellites and in the Com
munist movement throughout the world
So the next move-and it is clearly Stalin's
move-will be awaited with the greatest
interest