Evening star., 1949-08-06
Tito on the Offensive


reaching implications. 1t denotes new
phase in Yugoslavia's quarrel with the
Cominform, the organ of orthodox Com
munism, backed by Moscow. Hitherto
Tito, for all his bluster, has been essen
TALLY on the defensive. Now, he launches
a militant offensive, virtually melting the
peoples of neighboring Albania and Bull
garia to sweep out their present Comm
FORM dominated regimes and specifically
promising to aid them If and when they
stage revolts. Furthermore, he accuses
the Communist regimes in Hungary and
Romania, equally loyal to the Cominform,
OF aggressive designs against Yugoslavla,
and warns them of the consequences, as
serting that Yugoslav troops are in state
of alert to counter all provocations and
cope with any invading army, including
even Russia's.
Tito's bold defiance of his Cominform
foes is heightened by the time and place
of his utterance. He was addressing vast
audience gathered in Skoplje, capital of
Yugoslav Macedonia, on the fifth ami
versary of the establishment of the
Macedonian Republic of Yugoslavia." ;"
This was part of a change to federal
form of government wherein each distinct
region of Yugoslavia obtained, on paper
at least, measure of local autonomy with
special emphasis on the regional language
and culture. This was especially significant
for Macedonia, which has been perennial
source of diScord among Yugoslavia, Bull
garia and Greece, and where Tito says
Ii al elo@ H. 1u q
aim was to satisfy the regional self-con-
sciousness of the Yugoslav Macedonians by
giving them a distinctive status and thus to
offset Bulgarian propaganda for an inde-
pendent Macedonia under Bulgarian aus
pices. Such propaganda, formerly purely
nationalistic, has been encouraged by the
Cominform in order to make trouble for
Tito. Similarly, the Greek Communist
guerrillas, since the Cominform purge
in their leadership, have been agitating
for Greater Macedonia" comprising
Cominform and thus involving the seces-
sion OF the Yugoslav portion from
Titos federation. Furthermore, Tito i'm
plies that the Communist regimes of
Hungary and Romania have been toying
with the idea of annexing portions of
Yugoslavia containing Magyar or Ro-
manian minority elements The implica-
ton of all this has been that Tito's breach
with the Cominform could lead to the
disruption of Yugoslavia itself
Against this potentially deadly threat
Tito now reacts by a threat no less po-
tentially deadly to his opponents. His
incitement to the Albanian and Bulgarian
peoples may well send a shiver of appre-
henSion down the Spines of the COMM
form proconsuls, because both those coun-
tries contain embittered opposition ele-
ments. The Bulgarian Communist Party
has gone through series of "purges" for
nationalist deviation"-in other words,
for the same heresy of which Tito is
adjudged guilty. These malcontents can
thus serve as. q ,Titoist fifth column"
within the Party itself And, of course,
there is the suppressed but still numeri-
cally strong anti-Communist opposition,
which has no love for Tito and his brand
of Communism but which probably would
welcome an overthrow of the present
orthodox Communist regime. The same is
true OF Hungary and Romania. AS for
Albania, we know that Dictator Hoxa is
having his trouble with his people, who
are by nature cantankerous mountaineers
averse to strong government of any kind.
Titos new offensive is thus not to be
minimized. 1t will be interesting to see
how Moscow will react to it. Hitherto,
Soviet policy has worked indirectly through
its obedient Balkan agents. But should
these be threatened with overthrow by
local malcontents aided by Yugoslavia,
Moscow might resort to the type of direct
which Tito warns he would
counter with force of arms. The outcome
could mean open warfare between Soviet
Russia and rebellious Balkans. And that,
In turn, could lead to almost anything.
A West Point of the Air