874.00/7–3145: Telegram
No. 830
The Representative in
Bulgaria (Barnes) to the Acting Secretary of
State
priority
401. The FF (Fatherland Front) pack is now in full cry after Petkov.
My next following telegram No. 4021 reports portions of radio speech by Tsola Dragoicheva and text of an editorial in this morning[’]s FF newspaper. The fact that Petkov’s letter was a request of [to?] the Prime Minister that he, the Prime Minister, assure freedom of elections by arranging for Tripartite Allied control has of course not been revealed by Petkov’s pursuers and he (Petkov) has no effective [Page 734] means of bringing the nature of the document in question to attention of Bulgarian people. It is just this situation that senior Regent Ganev had in mind when he suggested several days ago that the “Voice of America” in Bulgaria reveal the substance of Petkov’s letter to the Bulgarian people (my telegram 395, July 282 [)]. No objective observer here can doubt that lives of Petkov and his leading supporters are in danger. Every friend of democracy in Bulgaria is looking to Potsdam for some sign of hope.