874.00/8–1645: Telegram
The United States Representative in Bulgaria (Barnes) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 16—10:12 a.m.]
443. The following statement was issued to the Bulgarian press last night by Prime Minister Georgiev in name of the Council of Ministers:
“On the 26th of last month I received a letter in which Mr. Nikola Petkov, at that time Minister without Portfolio, requested that the elections be postponed and that they be held under inter-Allied control. The Council of Ministers in a full session unanimously rejected and definitively condemned this attempt to seek foreign intervention in the internal affairs of Bulgaria. Not a single Minister associated himself with the step of Mr. Petkov.
On the 13th of this month in the evening I received from the American political representative of the Allied Control Commission, Mr. Barnes, a note in which he expressed the opinion of the Washington Government regarding our elections and made suggestions as to what we should do under these circumstances. Copies of this note were sent by Mr. Barnes to other places and persons. The note of the American representative will be published.
On the following day August 14 in the morning Messrs. Nikola Petkov, Grigor Cheshmedjiev, and Petko Stoyanov and their friends sent me a copy of the letter to the Regents in which these gentlemen announced that they had decided to withdraw their candidacies in the coming elections because the election had already been compromised. On the same day in the evening I received a letter in which the Ministers, Grigor Cheshmedjiev, Petko Stoyanov, Asen Pavlov and Angel Derzhanski informed me that unless the elections were postponed they would hand in their resignations. The Government examined all of these facts and their accompanying circumstances in their entirety and with regard to their domestic implications and, taking into consideration:
- 1.
- The decision to hold legislative elections was taken in good time with the unanimous agreement of the Council of Ministers in the presence of all Ministers, and that no objections were raised either within the country or abroad;
- 2.
- The holding of the elections then appeared and still appears as the one indispensable and essential step for the full democratization of the Government and for the completion of the establishment of a new free democratic order in the country;
- 3.
- The Government took in good time a series of measures to assure the full freedom of the elections and these measures were recently broadened and enforced;
- 4.
- A large number of opposition lists (19) were confirmed by the courts. In many places the opposition candidates had already begun their oral and written agitation without being limited by anyone whatsoever;
- 5.
- The statement and acts of certain persons and groups makes obvious the intention to provoke foreign intervention in the domestic life of the country;
- 6.
- Only some ten days separate us from the date of the elections and just at this time steps are being taken against their execution;
Taking all these things into consideration the Government has decided to present to the Bulgarian people all these facts and at the same time to appeal to them to unify themselves even more closely behind the Fatherland Front Government so that they may continue their efforts for the complete establishment of the new political and social order in the country on a broad, democratic and progressive basis. The Government condemns decisively all attempts to seek or provoke by whoever it may be and under whatever pretext, foreign intervention in our domestic affairs. It hopes at the time that its efforts and the efforts of the whole Bulgarian people to make their contribution to the struggle against the common enemy of mankind and to create a free, democratic government are being properly evaluated by all free[dom?] loving peoples and in the first place by their great power, toward whom Fatherland Front Bulgaria has always conducted itself with absolute, correct and sincere respect.
The Government is convinced that all Bulgarians will preserve to the end in these difficult days an honorable conduct if controlled and restricted and that they will not yield to any provocations but will avoid the fanning of political passions. We are likewise convinced that with our common efforts, we will overcome the remaining difficulties and inequalities in different spheres of life.
With this conviction and these hopes, I call upon the Bulgarian citizens to come in large numbers to the elections urged on August 26 and to support the lists of the Fatherland Front in order to continue the historic act of September 9, 1944 which has released the country from the most terrible catastrophe and to guarantee the Bulgarian people a happy future in a new, free, democratic, peace loving and powerful Bulgaria.”
My comments will follow.