Office of the Historian

740.0011 European War 1939/9891: Telegram

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

Sofia, April 11, 1941—noon.
[Received 5:05 p.m.]

175. To be communicated to the President. The Foreign Minister has stated to me as follows:

1.
That Yugoslavia and Greece have once again proven the almost criminal folly of a small country opposing a great mechanized nation.
2.
That Germany wants no territory in the Balkans.
3.
That Croatia and Slovenia will be made independent.
4.
That Bulgaria had considered the Macedonian question closed but the German conquest of Yugoslavia had now reopened it.
5.
That Bulgaria was willing that Macedonia should be free but that Italy was demanding Macedonia and Salonika for herself and since the Macedonians were Slavs with many of them Bulgarians, if they were not to be independent, it would be better to be Bulgarian than Italian.
6.
That Germany had absolutely no desire to and would not make war on the Turks nor attempt to pass through Turkey.
7.
That Russia did have very specific designs on Istanbul and the Straits and only her fear of a German drive on the Ukraine had prevented her from taking them.
8.
That neither England nor Germany should bear the guilt of war coming to the Balkans and that there was one man and one man only who was responsible and that was Mussolini.

Earle