871.00/11–2845: Telegram
The American Representative in Rumania (Berry) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 29—8:55 p.m.]
928. From Ethridge. Since returning from a brief trip into Transylvania I have seen two key Rumanian political figures whom I had [Page 632] been unable to contact earlier; Titel Petrescu, President of the Social Democrat Party, and Iosif Szraer, Communist Secretary General of the Ministry of Interior, who in separate interviews fully confirmed the impressions reported in my 917 of November 26.
Both Petrescu and Szraer agreed that the Govt was completely dominated by the Communists who receive their orders from Moscow and that the other parties within the Govt enjoy no independence whatsoever. Whereas the Socialists had originally been promised full freedom within the coalition Petrescu reported that, below the top level, no such cooperation exists. He predicted that a definite split between the Socialists and the National Democratic Front was inevitable although it might be several months before it materialized.
Petrescu added that the Communists would in the next several months make a vigorous effort to split the Socialist Party but expressed his confidence that his party would be able to withstand these attacks. From another source I have further been informed that in the near future the govt will probably prefer official charge of treason against the leaders of the Peasant and Liberal Parties accusing them of having organized the “Fascist” demonstration of November 8.
Petrescu and Szraer were also in agreement that the prestige of the King was at the present time higher that it had ever been before and that he has in fact become the symbol of Rumanian sovereignty and independence. Their views likewise coincided that, given the facts of Soviet occupation and Communist discipline, there was no possibility of finding a solution to the Rumanian problem on a local basis.
I therefore remain all the firmer in my belief that if the US desires to live up to the obligations which it assumed at Yalta and Potsdam, it must do so by bringing direct pressure on the Soviet Govt and while at the same time preserving its attitude of absolute inflexibility in Rumania. I believe we have the possibility of achieving this through the instrument of the Allied Control Commission if we can make that Commission a truly tripartite organization. Upon my return to Washington next week I shall undertake to develop in my report to you this approach to a solution.
I have notified Barnes29 that I am not coming to Sofia. [Ethridge.]
- Maynard B. Barnes, American Representative in Bulgaria.↩