874.00/3–1445
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Paraphrase of Telegram Received From the Foreign Office, Dated March 11th, 1945
Houstoun Boswall’s telegrams show that there is little likelihood of fair elections taking place in Bulgaria but he suggests that the British and American Governments should put out a statement showing the interest which they take in the proposed election in the hope of influencing the situation to some extent. It seems to us that we could hardly put out any such statement concerning a country subject to Russian military control without the Soviet concurrence, which would in the present circumstances almost certainly not be forthcoming; while to dispense with Soviet concurrence would lay us open to a bitter reproach from the Soviet Government and perhaps to retaliatory [Page 175] action in regard to Greece and Italy and other territories. In these circumstances we do not think that it would be wise to adopt Houstoun Boswall’s proposal.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to disguise the fact that the situation in Bulgaria is unsatisfactory. Apart from the prepared electoral law which seems designed to ensure a Communist dictatorship, purge shows signs of being carried to such lengths that there is a danger of such a vacuum being created in the political life of the country by the elimination of possible opponents of the existing regime, that development of a single-party Government into a dictatorship would be greatly facilitated.
Please communicate the gist of Houstoun Boswall’s reports to the State Department,92 in particular the proposal contained in paragraph three of his telegram No. 266, together with my comments as set out in the preceding paragraph, and enquire their views as to action which should be now taken.
- Attached texts not printed.↩