Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia does not foresee Russian aggression against his country, Kirtley F. Mather, professor of Geology, Kirtley F. Mather, professor of Geology, has reported after a visit this summer to Yugoslavia and its leader.

Mather lunched in Tito's summer villa on Brioni Island August 25, he told the CRIMSON this week. After the meal, Mather and other American visitors asked Tito this question:

"Does the Marshal expect that the war of words now being waged against him by the Cominform will be followed by a war of bullets, even as Hitler's barrage of invectives was the prelude for swift movement of panzer battalions?"

Tito answered: "No. The parallel is inaccurate."

"Invasion of Yugoslavia from the East is unlikely," the Marshal stated. "Continued economic pressure will be applied against us, but not military aggression."

But Mather said Tito made it clear that he will stand firm against Soviet attempts to impinge on Yugoslavia's sovereignity or on Yugoslavia's experiment with a planned economy of its own.

Insists on Autonomy

Tito believes in state socialism, Mather reported, and also is insistent on national auonomy. Tito is whole-heartedly a Communist, Mather added, but said he is a Communist who believes "Communist nations should have a large measure of independence in order that each may develop its own resources for the benefit of its own citizens, without becoming subservient to another."

During the course of a four-hour conversation with the university geologist, Tito traced his current "cold war" with Russia back to 1944 when he became boss of Yugoslavia.

"At the time of your meeting with Stalin in 1944," Tito was asked, "was everything harmonious and cordial between the two of you?"

The answer came in Serbian.

"It was not."

Mather reported that the Marshal's "quiet vehemence" made the meaning of this reply clear even before the interpreter had repeated it in English.

Monarchy Rejected

The cause of disharmony in 1944, Tito explained to his visitors, was Yugoslavia's refusal to restore a tentative monarchy.