LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Marshal Tito's-t Visit SIR,—If Mr. Waugh's interest in Yugoslav affairs had started between the two world wars he would know that Stephen Radic, the adored leader of the Croat Peasant Party (to which an overwhelming number of the Croats belonged), would, if he were alive today, be a warm adherent of Marshal Tito, if only because the excessive monastic lands, on which very inadequate taxes were paid: have now been distributed among the land-hungry peasants. Denouncing Radic as anti-Christ, the then Archbishop, Dr. Bauer, forbade his flock from attendance at Radic's meetings; this prohibition was ignored.
A very much smaller political party was that of Ante Pavelic, who was condemned to death in absentia by a French court for having organised the assassination at Marseilles of King Alexander. Sheltered by Mussolini in Italy, Pavelic flew back to Yugoslavia as soon as the German army crossed the frontier; and on the next day Archbishop Stepinac called upon him and then issued an official circular to his clergy calling upon them to collaborate with this criminal quisling. As the Yugoslav army was still resisting the invaders in Bosnia, Stepinac was flagrantly guilty of high treison. He accepted a decora- tion from Pavelic, and it is not known that he ever rebuked those of his clergy who took part in the forcible conversions of Orthodox persons to Catholicism, during which hundreds of lives were lost. Let one example suffice out of many. There exists a photograph of Miroslav Filipovic as a Franciscan monk and then in his uniform as commandant of the Jasenovac concentration camp, where he admitted having ordered the murder of 40,000 men, women and children. Tito is now being blamed because some priests are in prison ! And Tito's leniency was such thaf he merely requested Stepinac to leave the country.
Tito makes the not unreasonable request that a priest should be a good citizen. Monsignor Riccig is Vice-President of the Croat Parliament, while in Serbia the priest Smiljanovic holds a similar position. The Orthodox Patriarch has issued a statement that there now exists perfect understanding between the Church and the Government, which pays all the social insurance for the priests, old age pensions, family allowances, &c. Even larger amounts are being paid to the Catholic Church in Croatia, because of the restoration made necessary after Pavelic's Ustachi had used so many of the churches as forts, with machine-guns in the towers, after which they had to be attacked.
In order to attack Marshal Tito any stick appears to be suitable. He is now being severely criticised because a young man has to be at least fifteen years old before entering a seminary. Of course he should be congratulated for approaching our system under which one enters a theological college after the university, which is infinitely preferable to having children entering a seminary at the age of ten or twelve. He is also criticised because in as many hospitals as possible the unqualified and somewhat ignorant nuns have been replaced by qualified nurses, some of them White Russians who have been made
very welcome in Yugoslavia.—Yours faithfully, HENRY BAERLEIN. Bath Club, 74 St. James's Street, S.W.1.
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