874.00/5–2645: Telegram
The United States Representative in Bulgaria (Barnes) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 26—2:45 p.m.]
275. I informed the MinFonAf this morning of contents of Deptel No. 145 May 25.61 The talk that followed on the Dimitrov incident was purely speculative.
I said that the only assurance of complete security that I could think of would be the departure of Dimitrov from the country. The Minister asked what I would think of a formal written commitment in the name of the Bulgarian Govt, undertaken on the basis of a Cabinet decision, to assure the well being of Dimitrov in the hands of the Bulgarian authorities. I told him that in my opinion no such commitment would be worth more than the will of the Communists and of the militia to carry it out, and I suggested to him that he knew far better than I did that the Communists have only one loyalty, namely, the Communists’ doctrines and objectives, and that if Georgi Dimitrov in Moscow told the Communists in Bulgaria to do away with G. M. Dimitrov, any commitment given in the name of the Bulgarian Govt would not be worth the paper it was written on. The Minister did not refute this statement. He then asked me how I envisaged meeting the personal inconvenience of Dimitrov about in a small house with me if it were found impossible to agree on the departure of Dimitrov from Bulgaria. I suggested that he might be lodged with our military at the American College. The Minister then laughingly envisaged a “Battle Royal” between our military and the militia during transfer of Dimitrov from my house to the college. At this point the conversation on Dimitrov ended with the suggestion that we both think matters over, looking to a speedy and mutually satisfactory liquidation of the matter. The Minister said that he would consult immediately with his colleagues, but showed anything but enthusiasm for the task ahead of him in talking the matter over with Yugov.
I then told the Minister that I could put up with humiliation to a certain point but that I had about reached the limit of toleration in [Page 228] this respect, at least so far as the militia of a defeated nation is concerned. I told him that three days ago I had given my word that I would not permit any connivance looking to the escape of Dimitrov. I pointed out that it should be clear to every one that I had acted in the utmost good faith from the outset of the Dimitrov incident. For three days now I have submitted to the search of my car by the militia every time I have left and entered the property where I am living, I made it clear to the Minister that this state of affairs seemed to be a reversal of the respective roles of our two countries as established by the Armistice which we had signed as victors and Bulgaria as the vanquished. I told him that he should inform Yugov forthwith that as from one o’clock today he, Yugov, would be wholly responsible for anything that might happen by virtue of my decision to carry henceforth in my car an armed US soldier and his, Yugov’s apparent order to the militia to search my car at all times.
The Minister was kind enough to invite me for a day’s outing in the Botq Valley with himself, other members of the Govt, the Buss Minister62 and certain Buss genls and Genls Crane and Oxley, proposed for May 28. I expressed regret that I must deprive myself of the pleasure. I said, however, that as I had been a prisoner in Sofia since my arrival here I had become more or less used to doing without such excursions. I said that “I might be cutting off my nose to spite my face” by refusing to leave the city and its environs when an opportunity presented itself to do so without the humiliation of requesting permission of the Russians (to be accompanied by a Buss officer is about the same thing and officers are now available only for official trips) but here, again, I had submitted to about the limit of my patience. All of the above was in good spirits. The Minister understands my feelings fully and sympathizes with them. I thought, however, that the time had come to put a number of matters into words that up to the present had been conveyed only fragmentarily.
Rptd to Moscow as 134 and AmPolAd as 149.