Difficult Choice

To Premier Dr. Milan Stoyadinovich, six members of his Cabinet, and 141 Deputies, it occurred last week that they might have to become Jews, Moslems, Catholics or Protestants. Though all strictly belonged to the Serbian Orthodox Church, they had been "excommunicated" as result of an Orthodox-Government row. The Orthodox Church disapproved of the Government's recently coming to terms with the Vatican; seemed to suspect moreover that the Government had had a hand in the death of the Orthodox Patriarch, His Holiness Varnava (TIME, Aug. 2). The Premier's problem was urgent because under Yugoslavia's Constitution, Ministers and Deputies must belong to one or other of the country's five religious communities.

Day after the Patriarch's funeral tension had become so great that the Premier bolted from the capital to Brod where Prince Paul, the chief Regent, was vacationing. In an effort to cause the Premier the maximum embarrassment, the Orthodox Holy Synod this week ordered him back to Belgrade to stand trial with the rest of the "excommunicated" before a Church Court.

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