SWIFT ACTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 118, 21 May 1934, Page 7

SWIFT ACTION.

RULE IN BULGARIA. DICTATORSHIP SET UP. Government Displaced After Dramatic Coup d'Etat. KING APPOINTS CABINET. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 11.30 a.m.) SOFIA, May 20. Swift action at 2 a.m. yesterday established a National Government with a virtual dictatorship in Bulgaria.

Troops suddenly occupied the streets, surrounded the public buildings and placed the city entirely under military control. They completely isolated Sofia and established a censorship and control of the telephones.

King Boris nominated the National Government. The Prime Minister is M. Kimon Georgieff, and his Cabinet includes General Midileff (Interior), General Zlateff (War), M. Todoroff (Finance) and Professor Moloff (Education). The new regime is apparently Fascist. It will probably seek a Pan-Slav alliance with Yugoslavia, which will be simplified by the reported arrest of the Macedonian leader, Ivan Mihailoff, and numerous followers. . A nominee chamber of 100 members will replace the Sobranje (Parliament). There are conflicting reports regarding the reasons for the coup d'etat, but it is believed to have been due to the action of MM. Georgieff and Todoroff, Professor Moloff and other leaders of the Zveno group, a National non-party organisation which, was associated with the coup d'etat in 1923, when the agrarian Government was overthrown. The King learned of the plot and decided, after hesitation and on the. advice of the Army officers, to forestall Professor Tsankoff. However, he was forced to accept a National Government. It is reported that King Boris was not aware of the Army's preparations until troops surrounded the Palace. Even, then he demurred at signing a proclamation dissolving Parliament and appointing a new Government. Army Rising Reported. Another report states that 80 generals and members of the Reserve Officers' Association met in secret and sent a deputation to His Majesty urging a nonparty Government owing to the deplorable condition of the country as the result of party strife and neglect of the necessities of the peasants, who constitute 80 per cent of the population.

The new Government issued a mam-' festo declaring it had been given power owing to a party deadlock hindering the working of the administration and delaying a settlement of economic problems, thus necessitating a national nonparty Government. This had been established with the assistance of the Army, which realised the need for ending the dangerous situation. The manifesto sets out 14 essential points at which the Government will aim. They include the balancing of the Budget; the creation of new sources of revenue; improvement of credit, especially for agriculturists; the creation of new markets; the removal of unemployment; and the re-establishment of relations with the Soviet. The manifesto adds:— "The Government assumes control in the name of internal peace." Early workers were turned back and told that the shops and offices would not be opened. There were hundreds of preventive arrests, those detained including Communists and members of the Left Wing. An order confining the people to their houses was strictly applied to the former Ministers. General Vataff, who was Minister of War in the deposed Cabinet, on hearing of the military movements telephoned to the War Ministry asking for an explanation. He was brusquely told he was no longer Minister.

On reports that all was quiet throughout the country the military blockade was withdrawn at noon.