740.00119 Control (Bulgaria)/11–2844: Telegram
The Chargé in the Soviet Union ( Kennan ) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 29—10:55 a.m.]
4553. 1. The British Ambassador has written Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs Dekanosov a letter dated November 26 with regard to an announcement reported to have been made in Belgrade by the Bulgarian Minister of Justice Terpeshev,65 to the effect that the Bulgarian Government would supply Yugoslavia with some 3,000 tons each of flour, corn, beans, salt and sugar as well as clothing and other articles, and also would care for 10,000 Yugoslav orphan children until the end of the war.
Clark Kerr pointed out that under the terms of the Bulgarian armistice, both Greece and Yugoslavia were entitled to deliveries from Bulgaria, and that although the needs of the Greek population were desperate, Greece had as yet received nothing from Bulgaria. The British Government understood that the Allied Control Commission had not yet begun consideration of Greek claims, and in a conversation with Houston-Boswell66 the Bulgarian Foreign Minister had stated that the Bulgarian Government would find it difficult to comply with deliveries to Greece, in view of other calls on Bulgaria’s limited resources. Clark Kerr said that if any proof of the inaccuracy of this statement were needed, it was provided by Terpeshev’s announcement in Belgrade.
The British Government did not know whether the Bulgarian plan to make these deliveries to Yugoslavia had Soviet approval. If it did, the British hoped that the Soviet Government would instruct the Soviet military authorities in Bulgaria to have the Bulgarians make identical deliveries to Greece. If the plan did not have Soviet approval, the British hoped the Soviet authorities in Bulgaria would be directed to hold up the proposed deliveries in order that Greek needs, which had equal priority with those of Yugoslavia, should not be prejudiced. It was clearly inadmissable that the Bulgarian Government should, while under an armistice regime, export goods without the consent of the Control Commission. Immediate action by the Soviet Government was requested.
[Page 495]Clark-Kerr’s letter added that the British Government hoped the Soviet Government [would] take early steps to set up the Control Commission so that the Bulgarian Government might be kept under proper supervision and prevented from attempting to play one Allied government off against another.
2. As instructed in the Department’s circular of November 18, 11 p.m., I have informed the Soviet Government of the U.S. Government’s interest in arranging for immediate deliveries of Bulgarian foodstuffs to Greece and in the early consideration of Greek claims by the Control Commission.
Sent to Department, repeated to Athens and to Caserta for Barnes.