FOREIGN N EWS,EUROPE: Papa Duclos Spanks Again

EUROPE

Chubby, chipper Jacques Duclos, one-time pastry cook, is Secretary General of the French Communists; he is also a sort of unofficial foster parent for national Communist parties outside of Russia. Last year, in the French Communist organ Les Cahiers du Communisme, he administered a polemical spanking that unseated U.S. Communist Boss Earl Browder. Last week he turned his admonitory attention to Italian Communist Boss Palmiro Togliatti.

Before the French Communist Executive Committee Papa Duclos pitched into Comrade Togliatti for arguing that Trieste must remain “Italian” rather than become Yugoslav, as Comrade Tito insists. Meanwhile, Les Cahiers published an article on Trieste by Stephane Mitrovitch, Yugoslav veteran of the old Comintern. Charged Mitrovitch: “Our Italian comrades . . . [are guilty of] political and theoretical deviations . . . erroneous conceptions . . . [that reinforce] reactionary forces in Italy and the world.”

Togliatti did not take it lying down, any more than Browder did (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). The Italian Communist executive committee issued a statement that more than ever emphasized the unhappy dilemma of stooges of one country who operate as politicians in another country: “Italian Communists are unanimous in fighting with energy any rebirth of Italian nationalism. But they are also unanimous in hoping that a solution of the Trieste question will be found which will be different from that indicated by the French Communists.”