The Press: Completely Imaginary?

A recent issue of David Lawrence's U.S. News & World Report carried a three-page "Interview with a Top Yugoslav Official in Belgrade." In response to 18 questions, the unnamed official was quoted as saying, among other things, that "this conflict in Korea is sheer camouflage on the part of the Russians. The U.S.S.R. wants ... to provoke a war between the U.S. and China . . Once the U.S. is embroiled in a war with China, Russia's hands would be freed to subjugate other countries."

Last week, Tanjug, official Yugoslav press agency, denounced the interview as "completely imaginary." Since U.S. News & World Report "has no editors or correspondents in Yugoslavia," said the agency, "an interview could not have been given them."

Explained the magazine's World Staff Editor Howard Flieger, who handled the "interview": a special U.S. News courier had taken the questions to Belgrade and got them answered by a Yugoslav official whom he had presumed was empowered to talk for Tito's government. Said Flieger: "There is no doubt in my mind that the story as we printed it is the authentic official attitude." But he refused to name either the talkative official or the courier. Tanjug's denial, Flieger said, should be filed under the "inscrutable Communists."