874.00/0–2949

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Roy M. Melbourne of the Division of Southern European Affairs

confidential

Having just returned from several weeks’ leave, I took the occasion to have lunch yesterday with Dr. Dimitrov, President of the Bulgarian National Committee, in order to learn of any developments in his field. The big event in his estimation was the recent formation of the US Committee for a Free Europe which has been established under the auspices of prominent Americans.

In Dr. Dimitrov’s discussion of the Free Europe Committee there was a mixed reaction. He asserted that the organization up to now had adopted a standoffish attitude toward the International Peasant Union. He deprecated this, saying that the Peasant Union has been the only agency representing the predominantly agrarian peoples of Eastern Europe and that it was composed of recognized political leaders in exile from these countries. Dr. Dimitrov considered that while the Peasant Union had not been able to do much, yet it has been a rallying point for the oppressed Eastern European peoples and that, if there was not the fullest cooperation between the Free Europe group and the Peasant Union, this would have an adverse effect upon the work of both agencies.

The Free Europe development has also posed another problem, according to Dr. Dimitrov. He felt that inadvertently it might become a vehicle for watering down the idealism which has been the basis for the appeal of the International Peasant Union. He elaborated this to the effect that unless care were taken in the future by the Free Europe Committee, exiles scenting material advantages, such as financial assistance, to be gained through that agency, would jump on the band wagon. As a result, any political movements in Eastern Europe to which the Free Europe agency would give its approval might be unduly laden with those of opportunist calibre.

Dr. Dimitrov believes that the political future of Eastern Europe will be determined by the agrarian movement. He was one of the guiding spirits in the founding of the International Peasant Union [Page 295] and is its executive secretary. It thus is clear that he has vague apprehensions that this organization may play on a minor circuit unless there is a readiness by the Free Europe group to welcome close affiliations with the Peasant Union.1

[
Roy M. Melbourne
]
  1. In a conversation with Melbourne and John C. Campbell, Assistant Chief of the Division of Southern European Affairs, Dimitrov restated his view that the International Peasant Union had the best possibility for maintaining quick and stable contacts with the populations of the predominantly agrarian countries of Eastern Europe. Dimitrov explained that the International Peasant Union was seeking to widen its scope of activities through the addition of peasant party leaders from countries which had not previously been members (memorandum of conversation by Melbourne, July 15, 1949: 800.00/7–1549).