Arms for a Comrade

The U.S. last week got a progress report from its military mission in Yugoslavia. Said the mission chief, Brigadier General John Harmony: The regime of Communist Tito is now considerably stronger, thanks to grants of arms from the capitalist U.S.

The exact quantities of military supplies sent to Yugoslavia remain a military secret, but Harmony said that 30% of the military equipment allocated for the fiscal year 1950-51, and a slightly smaller percentage for 1951-52, had been delivered. Specific items included: fighter planes, tanks, armored and scout cars, antitank and antiaircraft guns.

Tito has so far put very little of this equipment in the field. He thinks that his army should first be thoroughly trained in its use. Not until last week, for example, were his first new U.S. fighter planes airborne. Yugoslav airmen (eleven officers, eight noncoms) trained in the U.S. returned to their homeland about a month ago. They have since been instructing other airmen in handling U.S. equipment.

Because of Tito's continuing suspicions of his new Western benefactors, the Harmony mission has been held down to 28 officers and men, though the U.S. had hoped for a complement of 73. Its watch over the free U.S. arms is sharply limited. Harmony said he does not know, nor does he expect to know, what units of Tito's army finally receive the U.S. weapons which will help Communist Yugoslavia take its stand, alongside the free world, against the threat of Communist Stalin.

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