HE publication of the
resolution of the Infor-
mation Bureau on the mis-
takes of the Central Com-
mittee of the Yugoslav Com-

munist Party came as an un-
pleasant surprise to the members

of the Yugoslav Communist
Party and to the Yugoslav
people in general. The reas-

on for this was the complete
absence of any inner party dis-
cussions of fundamental. ques-
tions of politics in Yugoslavia.
Upon receipt of letters of critic-
ism from the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union last March and
May, the leadership of the Yugo-
slav C.P. proceeded to set the
stage for the suppression of any
criticism of their policies among
their own membership and for a
defiance of the comradely critic-
ism offered by the CPSU and the
other European parties in the In-
formation Bureau. >

‘Hence the frameup charges
against two leading members of
the Central Committee and the
sovernment, Hebrang and Djuye-
vic, while the real reason for the
expulsion and arrest of these two
leaders was their open disagree-
ment with the policies of the Tito
Rankovich group.

A regular campaign of terror:
ism was introduced in the CP
of Yugoslavia with a view of re-
moving all honest elements who
stand on a position of. Unity
with the USSR and the New
Democracies, and of ‘intimidat-
ing the weaker elements. |
The preparations for the 5th

Congress of the Yugoslay CP and
the Congress itself, were a farce.
There was no possibility for any
open and frank discussion of the.
problems confronting the people
of Yugoslavia. Instead there was
intimidation and a whipped-up:
nationalist frenzy. The cry was:
“We are being slandered, our war

effort is being deliberately un-
_derrated,” etc.

U

Yugoslav partisan

oslav events

The Yugoslav people paid too dearly for their freedom from |
Hitlerite fascism to trade it away for a mess of Wall Street
pottage, even though an erstwhile ‘patriot’ may attempt the deal.

Clearly in the first few weeks.
after the . publication of the
Bureau resolution it was possible
for the Tito group to create a
false impression among large sec-

By OLIVE SUTTON

EY will write harsh words
about Eduard Benes, even
now that he is dead. They will
say that he died because he was
broken by the tremendous ad-
vances of his people in Feb-

missing the fact that he re-
signed the Czechoslovak presi-
dency bekause of ill health,
which had harassed him ever
since the shameful days of
Munich, in favor: of the claim
that he could not bring himself
to sign the new constitution,
With such distortions, they will
try to claim Eduard Benes for
their own ends—the promotion
of World War III.

Union.

This record is set forth in the
Memoirs of Eduard Benes, pub-
lished in part in the Nation in
six articles from June 19 to July
24. It will soon appear in book
form.

e

In the closing passages, Beneg
expressed his deep concern —
not for Czechoslovakia under its
democratic coalition — but for
the worsening conflict between
East and West,

Early in his Memoirs, Benes
recalls that Czechoslovakia es-
tablished contact with the So-
viet Union in 1922, and declares:
“I never agreed with the policy
of the western democracies
which isolated the Soviet Union
for a long time and excluded it
from European and world coop-
eration,”

.

ruary. They will persist in dis-.

_ reflected. “. .

Benes sought to avert the
catastrophic growth of Nazism
in Germany and to persuade the
western European countries. that
alliance with the Soviet Union
was their only hope, because -
without the USSR they would
all be crushed by Hitler.

He turned down a Nazi pact
proposal in 1936,

He knew even before the
rest of the world shrieked*
“purge,” that Hitler was seelx-
ing negotiations with the an-
ti-Soviet conspirators, Tukha-
chevsky, Rykov, etc, “The
whole European _ situation
would truly have been altered
had he succeeded in 6verturn-
ing the Soviet regime,” he
wrote. “But Stalin acted in
time.” j

/

“Yet until ‘the day of Munich
I never gave up hope,” Benes
. At Munich...
our state and people were club- -
bed on the head.” He described .
himself as he awaited the mo- .
ment to go into exile “com-.
pletely exhausted mentally and-
physically, my heart, filled with
indescribable emotions, my mind
with dark thoughts of the ter-
rible political and moral catas-
‘trophe that had engulfed Eu-
rope and might eventually de-
stroy it.”

When Daladier forme tha
French government in 1938,
which was later to capitulate to
the Nazis, Benes noted: “Thus
only the Soviet Union and our-
selves were left in the camp
of those who were basically and,
Openly anti-fascist and anti-
Nazi.” And he tells how “in
vain” he tried to persuade the
USSR to equip its Navy.”

Benes’ Memoirs are harsh on

The credo of Eduard Benes

tions of the Communists of Yugo-
slavia. Despite all terror and
intimidation, even in the pre-Con-
gress discussion, there were many
Yugoslav Communists who agreed

—— PHILLIPS ——

In July the Com-
munist Information
Bureau expressed the
conviction that heal-
thy elements in the
Communist Party of
Yugoslavia would
arise to oppose and
remove the Tito lead-
ership. Since that
time, the growing re-
volt against the pres-
ent Tito clique and
the statements of
powerful leading fig-
ures in Yugoslavia,
have served to bear
out the truth of the
Bureau’s statement.

By |
PAUL

with the criticism of the Infor-
mation Bureau, most of these crit-
icisms were completely kept from
the public, but some managed to
break through.

Thus, at meetings of Commun-
nist students at the Belgrade, Uni-
versity there was open criticism
voiced of the Central Committee.
It took plenty of trickery and in-
timidation (including the compil-
ing of a list of hames of all stud-
ents who were in any way critical
of the Yugoslav leadership and

x

‘

the US diplomats who helped
engineer the Munich betrayal.
Of William C. Bullitt, then our
Ambassador to France, Benes
wrote: “Bullitt himself let it be
known , . . that he considered
Prague too harsh toward the
German minority; President
Benes an irreconcilable anti-
German chauvinist, and Benes’

EDUARD BENES

“policy a threat to European

peace. His attitude in this period
and later was dictated chiefly
by his personal opposition to the
Soviet Union. . , .”

The U.S. Ambassador to Ber-
lin, Hugh Wilson, close associ-
ate of Herbert Hoover since, es-
poused the idea that “Goering
did not desire war and was
clearly working for peace. . ...”

During those years, . Benes
taught for a while at the Uni-
versity of Chicago, travelled to
London, and eventually to Paris.
He spoke with Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, with Winston Chureh-

ion would now orient itself sole-

tage ‘and security. . . .”

ill. He exerted every effort to
prepave them for the time he
knew Hitler must attack the
USSR. He was pleased to find
Roosevelt in agreement.

His comments on events that
shook much of the rest of the
world show him consistently
alert to the forces working in
Furope, which made World War
II finally a people’s war of
a.0eration, :

“The Soviet-Finnish war,” he
wrote, ‘seant that the Soviet
Union . . . wanted to insure
itself against Germany and
was prepared to take the con-
sequences . . . I insisted to my
coUaborators . . . that they
must not give in to the anti-
Soviet propaganda then being
spread abroad from America.”

He was prepared for the So-
viet-German pact: ‘I’ regarded
the Soviet-French-English con-
versations as definitely ended,
and believed that the Soviet Un-

ly according to its own advan-

In 1942, Benes concluded a
treaty with the Soviet Union.
“Our treaty with Russia,” he de-
clared, “the first of its kind dur-
ing the war, partially broke
down the barrier between the
Soviets and the Western world.
At once a sharp controversy
arose about it. Conservatives in
England and in America and in
some other countries attacked
us, : ;

“German Propaganda, poured
out fire and brimstone telling
our peaple that I had sold my
homeland to Stalin.”

Today it is Washington which
pours out “fire and brimstone.”
But before he died, Benes saw
Czechoslovakia’s future secured,

’

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 24, 1948—PAGE 4. :

the handing over of those names

to the “security organs”) before
the leadership managed to obtain
a vote of confidence in the Central
Committee.
e

With every day and week since
July, the treacherous position of
_the Yugoslav Party leadership is
becoming more evident. The fight
of the honest elements against
the treason of their leaders is now
widespread in all provinces of the
country and in all branches of

'

public life—the army, air force, ~
indus- ,

government departments,

try and the educational institu-

tions,

The murder of General “Arso-

Yovanovich brought to light the
extent of the Rankovich terrorism
against honest Communists in Yu-
goslavia, Yovanovich was the
chief-of-staff of the Yugoslav

Arinfy at the time he was mur- a

dered, yet even a person of his
rank was unable to express his.
opinion and was compelled to flee
the country. He was ambushed
and murdered at the border by
Tito agents. The shooting of Yo-
vanovich, a hero of the War of
Liberation and one of the fore-
most military leaders of Yugo-
Slavia aroused masses of Yugo-
slavs to a fight against the pres-
ent leadership.

@

It is impossible to enumerate all
the cases of resistance, but some
of the more important deserve
mention. General Pero Popivoda,
who, according to his statement,
supported the present Yugoslav
leadership during July, decided
to join the fight for a Socialist
Yugoslavia and in a letter to the
Moscow newspaper Pravda of
August 18 denounced the treach-
ery of the present leadership.

The bulk of the Yugoslaw del-
egation to the UN and a con-
siderable number of members of
the Washington Embassy staff
took an openly critical position
against the Tito group. They
were recalled and chose’ to re:
main in Prague where they
are now actively exposing the
misdeeds of the Tito-Ranko-
vich Djilas clique, .
The news is gradually breaking
through to the people of Yugo-
slavia, despite censorship and in-
' timidation, People are finding out
that British spies are tolerated in.
high government positions—that
General Velebit, exposed as a Bri-
lish spy, is Assistant Minister of
Foreign Affairs; that Diilas de-
serted the front during a critical
period of the war of liberation.
and his friends are covering him;
that the same Dijilas made open
anti-Soviet statements at inner
meetings of the Yugoslay Central
Committee.

'

The awakening of the Yugo-
Slav people against the traitors
among their leaders is so wide-
spread that the Tito regime is
constantly carrying on purges
and government changes, Various
ministers of the individual repub-
lics have been removed. Talented
leading people, such as the head

\of the Telegraph Agency, Sima
Balen, has been removed and iS
now imprisoned.

The resolution of the Commun-
ist Information Bureau expressed
confidence that the healthy ele-
ments in the CP of Yugoslavia
will force their leaders to correct
their mistakes, The present de-
velopments in that country prove
that the healthy core among the
Yugoslav people generally, are
continuing this relentless struggle
and will ultimately succeed in ré
uniting Yugoslavia in friendship
with the mighty USSR and: the
family of New Democratic states.

The great hopes of world re-
action, under the leadership of
American jmperialism, to find in
Yugoslavia an ally of imperialism
and world reaction will be shat-

‘tered against the rock of Yugo-

slav resistance,

.