Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/4254: Telegram

The Minister in Bulgaria (Earle) to the Secretary of State

Sofia, June 27, 1940—7 p.m.
[Received June 27—6:44 p.m.]

71. I have seen the Minister for Foreign Affairs regarding Russian ultimatum to Rumania.

(1)
He believes there was a general understanding between Russia and Germany that Bessarabia would be taken at some time by Russia, but that Russia’s present timing of its ultimatum had taken both Germany and Rumania by surprise.
(2)
Now that the Rumanian territorial subject had been opened by Russia, Bulgaria’s claims to the southern Dobrudja45 would be considered because they were so just that not even a devil’s tribunal could reject them. But this would definitely be done by Bulgaria through peaceful negotiation and not by military force.
(3)
That Bulgaria had only normal frontier guards at the present time on the Rumanian border, but would certainly heavily increase them should fighting break out in Rumania.
(4)
That there are only some slight unimportant misunderstandings between Bulgaria and Russia in connection with the recent [apparent omission].46

My impression is that the King47 and Government sincerely want their claims to the Dobrudja acceded to peacefully since it would mean a much more permanent settlement. However, the Bulgarian people and the Army feel so righteously justified in their Dobrudja claims that there is a possibility that the King and Government might be forced by the Army to take military steps if fighting breaks out in Rumania.

Earle
  1. Bulgaria had ceded this territory to Rumania by the treaty of peace signed at Bucharest on August 10, 1913; for text, see British and Foreign State Papers, vol. cvii, p. 658.↩
  2. Intended reference is probably to some suspected pro-German trend in the Bulgarian Government, as illustrated by the signature of the Bulgarian-German Cultural Convention at Sofia on June 19, 1940.↩
  3. Boris III.↩