740.00119 EW/8–2844: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Harriman) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 28—4:20 p.m.]
3189. Situation in Bulgaria was subject to [of?] communiqué released by Foreign Office Information Bureau to press for August 27th and reading in translation as follows:
“On August 26 the Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Draganov, made a statement to the Soviet Chargé d’Affaires, in Bulgaria, [Page 377] Comrade Kirsanov, in the name of the Bulgarian Government to the effect that the Bulgarian Government had taken its decision regarding the complete neutrality of Bulgaria. The Minister of Foreign [Affairs] of Bulgaria, Mr. Draganov, stated that in the event that the German troops who are in Rumania should retreat into Bulgarian territory they would be disarmed and the Hague Convention37 would be applied to them. With regard to the German troops which are on Bulgarian territory here, as Mr. Draganov stated, the Bulgarian Government on August 25 took up with the German Government and Military Command the question of withdrawing these troops from Bulgaria. Mr. Draganov stated also that in the event of refusal by the Germans to withdraw their troops from Bulgaria they would be disarmed.”
- See convention respecting the rights and duties of neutral powers and persons in case of war on land, signed October 18, 1907, Foreign Relations, 1907, pt. 2, p. 1216.↩