740.00119 Control (Bulgaria)/12–744: Telegram
The American Representative in Bulgaria ( Barnes ) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 8—6:10 p.m.]
11. It has been officially announced on the radio that the so-called decision to reintegrate “Fascist-tinged” officers and soldiers into the army will not be carried out. Prior to this announcement the Minister of Justice,69 a Communist, let it be known that he had instructed the Peoples Courts to disregard the decision. Thus the Communists have scored and it would be a pretty good bet they have done so because of Russian support. In fact the story is told, and it comes from an excellent source, that General Biryusov notified the Government that the decision must be revoked as it contravened article VI of the armistice [Page 499] convention which binds the Government to cooperate in the apprehension and trial of all persons accused of war crimes. There is nothing surprising in the suggestion that General Biryusov may have enacted [so acted] without any reference of the matter to the British and American delegates on the ACC as he has already made it very clear to General Crane and General Oxley that he, Biryusov, and his Russian assistants are in fact the Allied Control Commission.
It is almost an hourly occurrence for Bulgarians who continue[d] to believe in the Western democracies during the days of Germany’s utilization of Bulgaria, the [to] appeal for evidence refuting the contention of previous regimes that the inevitable result of a policy opposed to Germany would be the Bolshevization of Bulgaria. Each day these advocates of democracy become more confident that the Russian army in Bulgaria will support the Bulgarian Communists in their determination to grasp control of the country. Each day they wait in vain for some sign of American and British resistance to this fear of Russian interference in the domestic political affairs of the country. These people are Bulgarians and it is difficult if not impossible for them to understand that American-British-Soviet “cooperation” is not to be made or broken over Bulgaria. Nevertheless, I myself believe that the time may come and perhaps very soon, when efforts to maintain with [in] this country the symbols of such cooperation may permanently or at least for a long time to come harm our position and that of the British with sane and sober opinion in the country.
Certainly to date the Accion [ACC in] Bulgaria, insofar as it may be said to have any reality, is in no way a cooperative body—it is nothing more than a section of the headquarters of Marshal Tolbukhin’s Sofia Chief of Staff, who at the same time is the Commanding Officer of Russia’s 37th Army, the Army that is apparently being created for the occupation of this country while the Bulgarian Army is “pursuing the Germans to Berlin”.
Repeated to Moscow and Caserta.
- Mincho Neychev.↩