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Show Marquis Chiids Tito Intense But Calm Over Crisis (Tills Is the second of twe articles ef Marquis Child f" exclusive ex-clusive Interview with Marshal Tlta of Yugoslavia.) : BELGRADE; TifO slavte ' Martha! Tito receives moat of hi visitor! In a huge, hlgh-eeilinged. hlgh-eeilinged. walnut-paneled office at his private villa on the outskirts out-skirts of Belgrade. To the left of his desk Is a more than life-sized life-sized bust of Lenin In dark bronze, which stands on a high pedestsl. As hs walks toward you across the length of the room, your first Impression Is that he Is shorter and more stocky than his photographs make him appear. Ha Is dressed la a business busi-ness suit and wears aa unobtrusive unobtru-sive tie. Re walks with the measured gait of a man who has Hved a great deal out of .doors , i ' Swift. Abrupt Speech His speech comes In quick, almost abrupt sentences and so fast that the Interpreter Is sometimes flustered. In his manner Is both authority and assurance. There was never the slightest hesitation about answering an-swering questions, although sometimes when the questions amused Mm he laughed and gave Joking replies. "The Comlnform blockade today," to-day," Tito said, "has absolutely no effect on Yugoslavia. It did have effect for six or seven months. But now It Is meaningless." This was a reflection of the quiet confidence that Tugo-alarla'a Tugo-alarla'a supreme boss showed throughout the interview. He repeated what ha has said several sev-eral times- before that Soviet Russia will not go to war to destroy a government that has refused to submit to dictation by Moscow. Cites World Frussurs "Russia's position before the world would prevent her from taking any such step," the marsh mar-sh a said. "It would put the Soviet Union In the position of an aggressor, and that Is a role she cannot afford. "Of course, border Incidents will continue. They probably even will be stepped up. But that doesn't cause us too much concern. Tea, we have good ' nerves hers. Ws have had a great deal of experience to harden hard-en our nerves la recent 'vara." As he says this last, Tito grins and his face has a look of a good-natured, slightly Impish small boy. Marshal Tito denied that there has been any marked Increase in the number of men under arms la Yugoslavia. During the summer some troops were kept In service for a month or a month and a half longer than their accustomed duty. - That's Over Now "But that Is over now,1 he said. "We are confident because of our moral unity and our strength. We are a people who esteem our freedom. That is why slanderous things said in the Soviet Union have bad no effect . "The effect has been Just the opposite to that Intended. Our people have been amssed that such terms could be used by a government Hka that of the Soviet So-viet Union. They have gone so far aa to say that we are fascists." fas-cists." The blockade. In the first Instance, In-stance, according to Tito, held up some aspects of the five-year nlan. narticularlv the hvdroelec- trie program. "But new," Tito said, "the handicap has been overcome by shifting the emphasis from large-scale projects to smaller unite. The machines we hope to obtain from America will help speed up the program of industrialization - that Is our goal. The rate of progress will depend upon the rate at which these machinee'can be purchased and shipped. Eye Natural Eeeessrees "We have great natural resources re-sources that we must develop. To do so we must mechanise la order to overcome our shortage in man power. There may be some delay in the capital Investment In-vestment phase of the prof-ram, but In other respects we may I asked Marshal Tito If there waa any chance that he would visit America in tha near future. The suggestion of such a trip amused him. - - "There Is too much to do here." he said. "I am far too from a brief talk with Tito you get a sense of bis tremendous tre-mendous concentration of effort and will. While he may be the dictator over M.000,000 people of this country. Marshal Tito has none of the outward hallmarks of the dictators of tha recent past-There past-There Is nothing about him of bluster or swag or arrogance. But at the same time you can sense that it would be a pretty unhealthy business to get in the way of this man who knows where he Is going and means to get there. Copyrlgha IMS, Varied Feature Syndicate. Ins. |