YUGOSLAV FACTIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1942, Page 3

YUGOSLAV FACTIONS

ENGAGED IN CIVIL WAR. EMBARRASSING PROBLEM FOR ALLIES. (By Telegraph—(Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, December 21. The civil war at present’ being waged in Yugoslavia between General Mikhailovitch’s forces and so-called partisan guerillas, according to the “New York Times” correspondent, Mr Harold Callender, directly affects the United Nations for two reasons. Firstly, if there is an invasion through Yugoslavia, the United Nations will face an embarrassing choice, since alignment with General Mikhailovitch would incur active partisan enmity and vice versa. - Secondly, the factions represent barriers of distrust separating the Russians from the Western democratic powers, since General Mikhailovitch is supported by the British Foreign Office, while the partisans have Russian backing. Thus the internal rift in Yugoslavia is a dramatic • foreshadowing of a great diplomatic enigma facing the peacemakers —the question of relations between Russia, on the one hand, and Britain and the United States on the other. The civil war in Spain proved the prelude to the present war. Similarly the struggle in Yugoslavia is apparently the preface to a great unsolved future conflict, seen by many informed observers. GERMAN TERRORISM. Yugoslav circles in London state that the Germans, in their fight against General Mikhailovitch, have increased their measures against the civilian Serbian population. The Germans are again burning down villages and arresting civilians, including women and children. German officers threaten to use gas to frighten the population. The German minority in Yugoslavia, whose members are armed, are now reinforced by Albanian volunteers. On November 12 two trainloads of Albanians arrived in Belgrade and were given the uniforms of Gestapo gendarmes and included in the units who are fighting Mikhailovitch. A number of executions on the grounds of sabotage, espionage and feeding guerillas have been reported from various parts of Serbia.