22 APRIL 1960, Page 15

THE BBC's YUGOSLAV SERVICE

SIR.--In the last six months the British public have increasingly concerned themselves with the BBC's Yugoslav Service. This general disquiet was most evident in the weekly and daily press. Your journal, the Star, the Daily Telegraph and Reynolds News have carried letters, comments and articles on the subject. Among the various contributors could be found dons, Members of Parliament, and journalists. The controversy touched on various important aspects of this country's relations with Yugoslavia, of British foreign and broadcasting policy. In short, these were topical and grave matters of the highest interest not only to the British, but also to the Yugoslav public. It would be normal and logical to expect the BBC to mirror faithfully and impartially the course of the controversy, without taking sides, and to inform the Yugoslav listeners—through its Yugoslav Service-- of this interesting and important public debate. The sad fact is, however, that this did not happen. If they had only listened to the BBC, the Yugoslav public would have known nothing at all about what was going on. Neither directly nor indirectly has anything so far published in the national press about the BBC's Yugoslav Service percolated to its Yugo- slav listeners.

Others, however, have been busy giving their own version of the events to the Yugoslav public. From either source (and both are totalitarian) that public got a twisted and garbled picture. From the left, the Yugoslav Communist press has begun a private war of its own against your journal. On January 10 the Belgrade weekly Nin violently attacked the-Specta- tor, and the campaign was continued on April 4 by the leading Communist daily Politika. As is usual in such cases the attack was couched in terms of vulgar abuse and slander. At about the same time the Madrid radio, in its Yugoslav transmissions of April 4 and 5, spoke at length about the same subject, giving its own twist and slant to the affair,

Thus we have the paradoxical situation that where- as the BBC, which is supposed to project the British point of view (or views) keeps silent about a pre- eminently British problem—which also impinges on our relations with Yugoslavia—others, far from friendly to this country, or the truth, are given a free hand to mislead the Yugoslav public on that very same matter.—Yours faithfully,