740.0011 European War 1939/8221: Telegram
The Minister in Greece (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
Received February 9—4:33 p.m.
63. Telegrams Nos. 53 and 54 of February 7 from Sofia.16 Both the Brazilian Minister16a and the Political Director of the Foreign Office told me this morning that they have no definite information to justify immediate alarm but they are nevertheless apprehensive. According to the Brazilian Minister an attack on Bulgaria by Turkey in the event of a German drive in this direction is still only a matter of probability, and he expressed the hope that Colonel Donovan may have been able to stiffen the latter’s attitude. In this connection, however, the Turkish Military Attaché told Major [Baker?] today that Turkey now feels herself menaced by both Germany and Russia which again has a considerable force on the Caucasus front. It is his idea that Germany will start advancing into Bulgaria soon, and that the Bulgarian forces will then be used to block any Turkish move while the Germans take Salonika and probably all Greece. On the other hand, some other competent observers here, including the Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs16b with whom I recently had a long conversation on this matter, believe it still possible that the Germans intend only to establish a military control in Bulgaria similar to that which they now enjoy in Rumania, to make the establishment of an eastern front by the British impracticable, and to preserve Balkan economy for themselves intact.
Repeat to Ankara and Sofia.