BULGARIA DEFIES WESTERN POWERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 201, 25 August 1945, Page 6

BULGARIA DEFIES WESTERN POWERS

HOLDING ELECTIONS

Delay In Conference Of Big Five' May Be Dangerous

Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 24.

Considerable concern is being expressed in London regarding the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Balkans, says the Evening News diplomatic correspondent. The crisis provoked by the Bulgarian decision to go on next Sunday with the elections in defiance of the Western Powers has been worsened by the appeal to Britain and America by King Michael of Rumania for help in forming a new Government.

Unfortunately, the conference of the Big Five Foreign Ministers—the machinery of which could deal with such problems—does not meet again until September 10, and it is feared the time lag may have dangerous consequences.

An Istanbul report states that newspaper correspondents will not be permitted to go to Sofia to observe and report on the Bulgarian elections. The ban was imposed despite the Potsdam Declaration that "the three Governments have no doubt that in view of the changed conditions resulting from the termination of the war in Europe representatives of the Allied Press will enjoy full freedom to report to the world developments in Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Finland. Russians Refuse To Intervene Reporters who approached the Russian authorities in Istanbul were referred back to the Bulgarians. Reuters correspondent in Istanbul says it is thought there- that correspondents may be allowed to go to Soiia after the elections, but this would scarcely conform with the spirit of the Potsdam Declaration. The Foreign Minister, Professor Petko Stainov, referring at a Press conference to the British and American Notes on the Bulgarian elections, pointed out that in accordance with the armistice terms signed in Moscow all demands to the Bulgarian Government must be submitted to the Allied Control Commission as the only legal control authority in Bulgaria. If by midnight to-morrow the Allied Control Commission made no stipulations, the Bulgarian Government would consider the elections a purely internal matter and they would take place. The British and American Governments should rather have submitted Notes to Moscow, reached an agreement and then advised the Bulgarian .Government through the Allied Control Commission.