874.00/5–2545: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the United States Representative in Bulgaria (Barnes)
144. A question of asylum arose in Rumania some weeks ago57 (reference immediately preceding telegram58) when General Radescu, ousted as Prime Minister by Soviet demand, took refuge in the British Mission. There had also been indications that other prominent Rumanians, including members of the Royal family would request asylum with General Schuyler or Berry. The Department’s instructions to Berry were to the effect that assistance which he might be called upon to extend would be limited by the informal nature of his mission. As regards possible action by General Schuyler, the instruction, in which War Department concurred, stated that he would not be in a position to act independently in offering protection beyond his capacity as representative in ACC, and that, though in an extremity requiring emergency protection from physical violence [Page 226] he might give such protection, he should in any case immediately present the matter before the ACC for the consideration of his Soviet and British colleagues. While Department’s telegram stated that though the Soviet element normally exercised administrative and executory functions in the ACC it was reasonable to suppose that the latter would act as a tripartite body on a question of this kind, we made our position clear that responsibility for ensuring safety of threatened individuals should rest with ACC whether it acted as tripartite or purely Soviet agency.
It is evident that both the personalities and the circumstances involved present a situation in Bulgaria which is not parallel with the Rumanian precedent, and that the argument of protection of military operations is no longer applicable. If, nevertheless, the ACC considers that it should, at this late date, take cognizance of political conditions in Bulgaria which the Soviet Government has hitherto represented as not requiring Allied attention, we would of course be willing to have the Dimitrov case brought before the ACC, on the definite understanding that it would be considered on a genuinely tripartite basis.
- See telegram 114, March 9, 9 p.m., to Bucharest, vol. v, p. 507, and subsequent documentation.↩
- Supra. ↩