YUGOSLAVIA: Tito’s Triumph

For nearly two years Tito’s men hunted their arch-enemy General Draja Mihailovich through the crags and ravines of the Bosnian mountains. Early in the winter they discovered his snowbound hideout, kept him on ice until the thaw, then pounced. Last week Tito’s Government triumphantly announced that they had captured the bushy-bearded, bespectacled Chetnik leader sitting in a mountain cave, guarded by only eleven soldiers of his once-powerful army.

Early in the German occupation, Mihailovich was hailed as hero and leader of the Yugoslav resistance movement. But after Tito’s Partisans rose up to battle the Germans, he turned from fighting the invader to fighting his rivals.

In June, 1945, after most of his army had faded away, the hunted General proclaimed to his remaining troops: “Do not despair. . . . There is bound to be a war between the western democracies and Russia.” He said that “Serbians would rather perish than submit to Tito’s command or to Communism.” Last week he unwillingly submitted, would surely perish.