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XeAede September 526 i - page three ceased to count in the country's general development. The city intelligents4ays Here lies one of the very grave problems that renders administrative decentralization extremely difficul' for the Tito regime. Traditionaljyy in Yougoslavia all the people with a certain intellectual background - the bouggebis, the graduates from higher schools or universities, the professionals, wee eae vag badd sna’ tren higher employees oes = vere, strep ey of t e Weite" by the fact of his studies and of his positions felt that a city atmosphere alone could satisfy his “cultural needs". Smaller provincial towns, villages and farming areas were considered by him as a spiritual desert, where it would be a degradation to live, even with the best of opportunities. The present marxist regime and all the strong Party policies along the lines of decentralization were utter failure in trying to change this basic mentality. A few concrete examples: in Croatia, 50% of all lawyers and notary publics are concentrated in the one city of Zagreb, while the administration and the population of large rural districts have not even a legal advisor; the Youthern Serbian agricultural areag, with a population close to one-million inhxkitanks, disposeg pf only one medical doctor to every 10 or 12 thousand inhabitants. _he same problem exists for public employees, public health nurses, apothecaries, gngeneers, architects and all the other professions. As propaganda and tempting offers remained without effect, authorities have now decided to take drastic means: a specific number of intellectuals, working in the cities, are simply transferred into smaller centers or rural areas. Tre rare cases of absolute gefusal are judged by the administrative court and the sentence is invariably a choice of either acceptance of the trangferral or immediate dismissal from employment and profession, which means starvation. " The rural masseSe Ina previous déspatch, it was explained how the resistance of peasants, especially in Croatia, had forced the government to soft-pedal some of its most drastic rural measures: the discriminatory taxation, the compplsory deliveries of cereal and the collectivization of land with the exception of the rich plains. This happened in June, at a moment when tension had reached a very high point: farmers, pushed into opposition, were sabotaging production; and, according to the Organizational Secretary of Croatia's Party Central Committee, Zvonko Brkic, the party membership had drop ed to an all-time Low: not even 10% of the total population. "he relaxation of ' governmental controls however had an immediate and appeasing effect: al though rural opposition still exists as a latent threat, farmers teturned to werk and brought forth a crop that is far above expactabions fhe Churches: The difficulties which the Tito regime experinn: ces in its relation with the Roman Catholic Church are too widely known te require much explanatione The emprisonment and now the forced residence of Archbishop Stepinac, the open communist attack against Bishop Vouk of Ljubljana (in which the prelate was soaked with gasoline and put on fire), the emprisonment and death of many priests and Cathol: lay leaders, the closing of seminaries,anz the prohibition of religious instruction and many other discriminatory and repressive rules have been mentioned in the foreign press. They are, without doubt, one of 26. the reasons that explain popular opposition encountered by the regime in some of the strongly Catholic parts of the country: Slovenia and abo
