PROFESSORS FACE BELGRADE DRIVE

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia March 3I —A mood of political showdown is mounting at Belgrade University as Communist authorities intensify pressures against professors accused of opposing the of Communists’ drive orthodoxy and discipline.

The beleaguered philosophy department, long under attack as a. haven for those the orthodox term “anarcho‐liberals,” has been confronted by a mand of the university's munist Committee that it mit to a “fundamental political debate” on ideology.

A strongly critical letterCommunists in the department by the Communist Committee warned that the time had for professors either to fall step or to withdraw.

Department Termed Hotbed

“It is time that the Belgrade University's League of Communists rids itself of the odium of criticism because of the position stand of a segment instructors and students in philosophy department small groups in other departments,” the letter declared.

The letter charged that department was a hotbed left‐wing extremists who denigrated Communist achieve.. ments.

The controversy over Marxism on the campus has come into sharp focus in the half year after President Tito's command that the Communist party, weakened by decentralization reforms, be rebuilt as disciplined and dominant vanguard.

The political philosophers under criticism, mainly Marxists who favor further democratization of the party, tend to condemn dogmatists, bureaucrats, Stalinist remnants authoritarianism in general.

The Communist Committee's letter to the philosophy department complained, in particular, that members of the faculty were exerting “extremely strong influence” on the department and its students. Among them it listed Dr. Svetozar Stojanovic, Dr. Mihajlo Markovic, Dr. Ljubo‐, mir Tadic and Mrs. Zagora Pesic‐Golubovic, all noted scholars.

Professors Keep Posts

Despite high‐level wrath directed at them since last fall, the philosophy professors have managed to hold on to their teaching posts, shielded by faculty colleagues under university autonomy. The Communist Committee's letter clearly was intended to break the academic shield.

Protesting that the “small group of instructors and extremists students” were obstructing party influence at the university, the letter warned:

“The group has imposed itself, in a liberalistic political climate, in an extremely aggressive way as an alien body on the social and political organism of the university, which must be removed so that this organism Might work in a sound way.”

As the political philosophers were being buffeted, seven professors at the university's law school came under assault for having signed a petition requesting amnesty for Dr. Mihajlo Djuric, a well‐known professor’ in the law school imprisoned last year on charges of Serbian nationalism.

The imprisonment of Dr. Djuric brought sharp criticism here and abroad.

Dr. Djuric was sentenced last July to two years in prison, accused of having agitated against constitutional reforms that he felt weakened the position of the Republic of Serbia in the Yugoslav federation.

In January, the Serbian Supreme Court reduced the sentence to nine months.

Djuric Reported Ill

The amnesty petition was circulated at the law school after reports that Dr. Djuric was ailing and that his family was in financial need.

“Professor Djuric is an outstanding personality not only in his own country but also in foreign countries, a man of exceptional culture and scholarly scope,” the amnesty petition said. “We are of the opinion that such an erudite person should not remain in prison and be prevented from continuing his significant work.”

The petition was addressed to the Serbian Secretariat of Justice, but it was never sent. Nonetheless, the petition stirred storm of criticism.

A heated eight‐hour debate at the law school led to the ouster of three professors from the League of Communists and the reprimand of two others.

The attempt to obtain an amnesty for Dr. Djuric raised especially sensitive issues because of the imprisonment in Croatia last year of professors, other intellectuals and students on charges of separatist conspiracies. An amnesty for Dr. Djuric by the Serbian court would be certain to arouse similar demands for the imprisoned Croats.

The Croatian Supreme Court month increased sentences four of the defendants, among them Zlatko Tomicic, a writer and editor. His three‐year sentence was raised to five years.