874.00/8–2545: Telegram
The United States Representative in Bulgaria (Barnes) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:30 p.m.]
476. Department’s telegram 273, August 24. Before requesting General Crane to communicate with Chairman Allied Control Commission [Page 312] I reread with great care all instructions received from Department back to and including Department’s 84, March 29;45 also passages President’s speech Berlin Conference regarding Allied Control Commission. The logic of these instructions, the fact that it was already August 23 and that since my arrival at this post repeated efforts to obtain immediate instructions from the Department have invariably failed (elections were scheduled for August 26), plus first hand knowledge of the actual situation confronting the three Allies in Bulgaria, caused me to act as I did. Since the receipt of the Department’s 273, I have searched my conscience and have reexamined the judgment that I exercised from every point of view possible to one who, being the subject of the censure under consideration, admittedly is prejudiced. I remain at a loss to understand what prompted the Department’s telegram. Obviously the purpose of expressing the views of the US Government was to forestall rigged elections and consequent formation of a government that US could not recognize. Events reported in my telegrams 461, August 21, 466 and 467, August 22, 471 and 474, August 24 heighten my inability to comprehend. I can only add that when from the Regents and Ministers of State down to the lowest of Bulgarians I am receiving expressions of thanks for what US policy has done for Bulgaria, my only regret springs from the doubt cast by the Department’s 273 on what has been done.