YUGOSLAVIA: The Indiscreet Comrade

Into a big exposition hall at Zagreb last week trooped 2,000 delegates of the Yugoslav Communist Party for their first party congress in four years. At first, everything moved according to plan.

Marshal Tito and the party high command wanted to replace the nine-man Politburo with a new 13-member executive committee; the delegates approved. The high command wanted to get rid of Blagoje Neskovic, a Politburocrat and a Vice Premier, because he had been displaying pro-Cominform sympathies; the delegates sacked Neskovic.

Then came a hitch. As Ljubodrag Djuric, secretary general of the federal government, rambled through a speech dealing with...

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