THE BBC's JUGOSLAV SERVICE S1R,—My anonymous countryman 'Z. Marn' has
told you how people in Jugoslavia. feel about the BBC transmissions to them. We, who are outside and lucky enough to live as free men, share their views.
Jugoslav independence• cannot be saved by Western support of the Communist pyramid of power, even if the top men are now Titoist. After more than ten years of this policy of support for the Tito regime there is still no assurance that one fine morning the West may not wake up to find this pyramid dominated by men with the Moscow view of ComMunism. Once again, the Soviet Union would he effectively on the borders of Greece and Trieste. What sense is there in all this?
Only through the broadening and decentralisa- tion of power (i.e., by the establishment of condi- tions in which a Government would have a majority of popular support in each of the federal units) can one he sure that out people's desires to stay inde- pendent of Moscow may' find proper expression. Even so. our numbers would he small, our economy undeveloped, our arms inadequate. We might yet succumb to the wolves but at least we would not be thrown to them by friends.
Jugoslavia may not be as important as we think, but her entry into the circle of democratic States without provoking any wars would none the less make a pleasant change these days.
How can we who are free to speak ever hope to persuade the West of the shortsightedness of its policy? Only by showing beyond any doubt that the views of your correspondent are shared by the vast majority of our countrymen. Our own protests and lamentations have certainly not been enough.
Nobody in Jugoslavia except the Communists in power can speak or write on these matters. If the BBC were to allow the democratic opposition to Tito to speak, proof would soon he forthcoming that such ideas were popular all over Jugoslavia. At the same time, we would not find it difficult to show to Britain and the West who were their true friends in our lands. Surely it is not asking too much to give democrats an occasional opportunity to have their say.—Yours faithfully,
VANE IVANOVIC
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