Legal Career and Communist Activities On The Side
After passing the lawyer's and judge's exams, Velebit began working as legal assistant at the District Court in Niš. Accused of having leftist political leanings during his student days he got transferred to Leskovac. Once there he hooked up with Communist Party (KPJ) members (a political party that was at the time an underground organization because of the ban on its activities in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and took part in starting the newspaper Leskovačke nedeljne novine that wasn't openly communist, but supported political opposition to the ruling coalition and by proxy to King Alexander I Karađorđević. Because of this Velebit got transferred again, this time to Priština where he was a judge in the County Court. The continual career demotion didn't deter Velebit from continuing with his leftist activity, in Priština he started a readers' group that met clandestinely in his room to read Marxist literature and discuss politics. When authorities caught a wiff of this, the search of his room was ordered by the county sheriff, but nothing incriminating was found. Velebit then became the chief of County Court in Kičevo, and later got transferred to Šid where he established contact with more KPJ members among whom was Hertha Haas (at the time a student at Economics High School in Zagreb, later to become Josip Broz Tito's wife).
By 1937 Velebit had enough of being a judge, and moved to Zagreb where he opened law practice. Already deeply involved with the communists, in parallel with his legal practice he became a courier for the underground movement. Due to the nature of his job and a considerable network of professional connections, he was perfectly suitable for carrying messages to foreign countries. On one of those trips to Istanbul in 1939, 32-year old Velebit met 47-year-old Josip Broz Tito who was KPJ's general secretary at the time. Being impressed with Velebit's guile, skills, and intelligence, Tito immediately offered him membership in the party. After becoming a full fledged member Velebit began working as assistant to Josip Kopinič, Comintern's agent in Zagreb. In 1940 Velebit obtained and set up a radio station used to establish daily contact with Moscow - the station was never discovered and functioned all through the war.
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