File No. 763.72119/1972

The Consul General at Sofia ( Murphy) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]

169. Bulgarian Government, in replying favorably to the Austrian note,1 declares as follows:

Faithful to the democratic ideal of justice and liberty to which the traditions of our reawakening, the spirit of our political constitution, and all the sources of our political life attach us, we do not aspire either to the conquest of provinces inhabited by foreign populations, or to the establishment of a hegemony over our neighbors. Our war aims are resumed solely and exclusively in the consolidation of some security and in the realization of the unity of our people in the ethnographic limits to which history has assigned them and which the accords based on the decisions of the great powers have more than once sanctioned in the past.

This formula does not date from today. Each time that the Balkan question has been brought to the lore, whether before the great diplomatic discussions of Europe or before the deliberations of the interested peoples themselves, Bulgaria has placed itself invariably on the ground of nationalities. Today as yesterday, we demand nothing beyond what the real extent of our race guarantees us.

In following the claims of our people thus formulated, we are conscious not only of collaborating in the creation in eastern Europe of a just and solid order, but also of bringing our loyal contribution to the bases of that society of nations which the wishes of the peoples call for more and more urgently.

With these views, we believe we ought to emphasize the opinion uttered by the President of the United States on the necessity of regulating Balkan disputes in accord with the right of nationalities. The Entente Powers have many times adhered to the ideas of Mr. Wilson. Bulgaria has every reason to conclude that the Governments of these powers could not raise against these claims any opposition of principle.

Sharing then the convictions of Your Excellency that an understanding is possible between the states at war, we formulate the hope that the step taken by the Austro-Hungarian Government will contribute to hasten the end of the immense misery which desolates humanity and to aid the organization of an international life resting on the noble principles, the accession of which the most authorized [Page 327] voices among the great nations have demanded and which Bulgaria would be particularly happy to see triumph.

I am justified in saying that Bulgaria is in accord with the principles announced by the President in his speech of July 41 and welcomes the declaration that America works the rule of entrance founded on the consent of those who are governed and sustained by the organized opinion of humanity. Bulgaria accepts with good will that the President should be the arbiter of the Balkans.

Murphy
  1. For text of the Austro-Hungarian note referred to, see ante, p. 306.
  2. Ante, p. 268.