Enter Tito's policeman
Sir: I was most gratified by Mr Szamuely's enlightening article (14 February) on Tito's policeman and the subsequent correspond- ence. It is high time that the long tradition of whitewashing Tito in the west should be broken and a few home truths made avail- able to western opinion. Until Mr Ribicic's visit hardly anybody in this country knew of the wholesale slaughter carried out by the Yugoslav partisans immediately after the war. In such a way they no doubt wanted to achieve a 'final solution' of the problem of political opposition. Next came the show trials which were as nasty and odious as any staged in the Soviet Union or its satellites. There is also the Yugoslav 'mini-collectivisa- tion' of the peasants carried out in 1949, 1950 and 1951, strictly along Stalinist lines, and which was given up only because of its cata- strophic economic results. The list is long.
One could say on the other hand that at least the Yugoslav case is different because of the personality of Tito, but has the British press been presenting Tito's true personality? He was usually described as a benign father figure ready to admit his mistakes. However, nobody ever emphasised some other aspects of his character, like his utmost ruthlessness. For example, Tito was in the Soviet Union during the great purges and survived un- scathed, whereas dozens of leading Yugoslav Communists disappeared without trace. It is interesting to note that even in official hagio- graphic biographies that part of his life is very scantily covered. Even after the war dis- agreement with Tito, even among the highest party reaches, meant disgrace and often death, as in the cases of Arsa Jovanovic and A. Hebrang.
Let this country by all means be on good terms with present-day Yugoslavia if that is deemed to serve the western cause, but let this be done with open eyes. The visit of Tito's policeman might have been instru- mental in contributing to a more sober assessment of these facts.
R. Marcefic Secretary, South Slav Democratic Union, 7 Chesterfield Gardens, London Nw3 Sir: What is the object of the émigré cam- paign you have filled your letters columns with these last few weeks? Is it to poison relations between ourselves and a state with which we have no quarrel, for the sake of their own personal revenge? If so, it is indeed fortunate that no one is taking any notice of them.
I hope youi readers are aware of the atrocities committed against Arabs and Jews in Pavelic's Croatia by the Ustasa; and know that the royalist Cetrici under Mihajlovic, having begun as patriots, ended up as col- laborators. It is against this background that we must judge the partisan reprisals; no doubt, like the anti-Communist reprisals in Indonesia, after the coup of 1965 had failed, they were frequently cruel and often indis- criminate; but that has nothing to do with communism, being the all but inevitable result of that situation.
We are told that the Yugoslav security police works outside the country's borders; so do the fascists who blow up embassies. I should hate to think that Britain's security was guaranteed only at home; yet there are no British émigrés and exiles of any impor- tance save the self-confessed spies. Let it not be forgotten that in 1949 various royalists and what-not were urging the West to invade Yugoslavia, overthrow Tito, and set up themselves. If Britain had to live with such enemies, I hope our security forces would be tough, ruthless and cunning.
L. A. Holford-Strevens 12 Bourne Hill, Palmers Green, London N13
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