761.67/4–1145: Telegram
The United States Representative in Bulgaria (Barnes) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:20 p.m.]
192. I talked with the Minister for Foreign Affairs27 yesterday about some of the more extreme rumors concerning Russian designs against Turkey that reach the British and our military personnel here. Please see my telegram No. 171 March 31, 5 p.m.28 and General Crane’s29 1458 Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Minister said he had no way of defining Russian intentions about anything, that the agents of Russian policy were inscrutable as we all know. Said the Minister, “However, Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill should have a far better comprehension of what the Russians have in mind than I can have, the subject of the Straits and the future of Russo-Turkish relations must have been discussed at Yalta.”30 The Minister then assured me that so far as Bulgaro-Turkish relations are concerned no change has been planned. He added that Antonov, the recently appointed Bulgarian Minister to Ankara,31 had been instructed to assure the Turkish Government that Bulgaria had no intention of altering its policy of good neighborly relations with Turkey and that the presence of Russian forces in Bulgaria could in no way modify the desire of Bulgaria to preserve such relations with Turkey. He told me that there has been no increase in strength of Bulgarian military forces in southeastern Bulgaria and that he knew of no recent increase in Russian forces in that area. It seemed clear from what the Minister said that Bulgaria has no desire for adventure at the expense of Turkey.
Repeated to Moscow as 89, to AmPolAd32 as 96 and Ankara.
- Petko Stainov.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Maj. Gen. John A. Crane, chief U. S. military representative on the Allied Control Commission for Bulgaria.↩
- See Conferences at Malta and Yalta, index entry on Soviet Union: Turkish Straits, p. 1017.↩
- Nikola Antonov.↩
- American Political Adviser (Alexander C. Kirk), to the Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theater, at Caserta, Italy.↩