874.002/179: Telegram
The Consul General at Istanbul (Berry) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:09 p.m.]
347R75. The completed Bulgarian Cabinet: Ivan Bagryanov, Prime Minister; Purvan Draganov, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor [Page 336] Alexander Stanishev, MD, Minister of the Interior; Professor Mihail Arnaudov, Minister of Public Instruction; Dimiter Savov, Minister of Finance; Lieutenant General Rusi Rusev, Minister of National Defense; Hristo Vasilev, Minister of Commerce and Labor; lawyer Rusi Rusev, Minister of Agriculture, army engineer Boris Kolchev, Minister of Railways; lawyer Alexander Staliiski, Minister of Justice, Reserve Colonel Slaveiko Vasilev, Minister of Public Works.
Doncho Kostov, Minister of Agriculture in Bagryanov’s first Cabinet, resigned. He was regarded as friendly to Soviet Russia. Hence his resignation seems to indicate a concession to the anti-Soviet element.
Three new Ministers have been added to the Cabinet in this latest reorganization namely Draganov, Staliiski and Vasilev. Draganov was Bulgarian Minister in Berlin until 1942 when he was transferred by King Boris to Madrid. The primary reason for his transfer is said to have been German complaint that he was lukewarm with regard to the Bulgarian alliance with the Axis. He was sent to Madrid for the purpose of keeping King Boris informed of affairs outside Axis dominated Europe.
Staliiski in the past has shown strong support of the Fascist concept of the state, having written a book entitled The State and the Fascist Philosophy.
Vasilev is President of the powerful union of reserve officers including reserve commissioned and non-commissioned officers said to number about 200,000 members.
While many members of the new Cabinet have been in the past associated with the Alliance with Germany and have expressed pro-German sentiment, they are believed to be primarily Bulgarian nationalists interested in the preservation of the independence of the Bulgarian state and nation. The only statement of policy of this Cabinet to date was that made on June 3 by Prime Minister Bagryanov which declared that the fate of Bulgaria rested entirely in Bulgarian hands and that Bulgaria must find her place in the new world which is coming into being as a result of this war. Please see my telegram No. 339R72 of June 8, 5 p.m. Thus the Cabinet has as its task to maintain the unity of the Bulgarian people and to preserve Bulgaria as an independent nation under the circumstances of a German defeat which will leave Bulgaria to find her own way out of the war.
Repeated to Algiers for Murphy as my No. 25 and true reading sent to MacVeagh in Cairo.