740.00119 European War 1939/2125: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman)
274. Personal for the Ambassador. The following information has just been received by the Department from another agency of the Government:1
The Bulgarian Minister to Turkey,2 following a conference which he had with the Bulgarian regents,3 Prime Minister,4 and chief leaders of the opposition, has requested through an American agent5 that talks be initiated with the United States Government with a view to Bulgaria joining the United Nations. It was suggested for this purpose that a Bulgarian mission be sent to Istanbul to outline the conditions under which the Bulgarian Army would join the Allies as a combatant force. The competent authorities of the United States Government are at present examining this information and as yet have formed no view of the matter.
You are authorized to communicate the foregoing information to the Soviet Government in accordance with the understandings reached at the Moscow Conference.6 The British Government is also being informed.
The Department leaves to your discretion whether the following additional details should be communicated to the Soviet Government:
In the conversations with the American agent the Bulgarian representative expressed the hope that the United States would be prepared to give some form of guarantee that it did not intend to end the national existence of Bulgaria and also requested that air raids be stopped for 10 days in order to permit the Bulgarian mission to reach Istanbul.
The foregoing was just received by the Department and since it presumably refers to the same subject constitutes an answer to your 436 of February 9.7
- Office of Strategic Services, Maj. Gen. William J. Donovan, Director.↩
- Nikola Balabanov.↩
- Prince Regent Cyril, brother of the late King Boris III; Lt. Gen. Nikola Mihov, former Minister of War; and Professor Bogdan Filov, former Premier.↩
- Dobri Bozhilov (Bojilov), former Minister of Finance.↩
- Angel Kouyoumdjisky, with rank of U.S. Army colonel, on a mission for the United States to Turkey relating to financial questions.↩
- For joint Four Nation Declaration on General Security, signed at Moscow, October 30, 1943, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i, p. 755; for documentation concerning the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers, see ibid., pp. 513 ff.↩
- Not printed; it reported that General Donovan was forwarding information on the Bulgarian situation to Government agencies in Washington and requested instructions as to action to be taken by the Embassy in Moscow.↩