BULGARIA'S YEAR

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 152, 29 June 1935, Page 31

BULGARIA'S YEAR

UNDER A DICTATORSHIP

THE NEW REGIME

Regrettable as the repeated crises ii Bulgaria may be they reveal a grea quality in the Bulgarian people: publii opinion cannot be permanently helc down in their country, writes th< Vienna correspondent of the "Man Chester Guardian." They are not pre pared to submit lightly to a dictator ship. The new Government of Pro fessor Tosheil does not end the dicta torial regime established by Colone Kimon Georgieff on May 19, 1934, bu it is hoped that it already constitute; a step towards its gradual liquidation. Georgieff's . Government came t( power through a coup d'etat which b: no means had, the approval of Kinj Boris, who is a firm believer in Par liamentary and democratic methods In face of .the Putsch he could d( nothing but consent; this, however did not carry approval. Georgiefi and especially his friend Colone Damian Veltcheff, seriously under mined the King's authority. Las January the officers who were faithfu to the Crown overthrew the Georgief regime, and on January 22 the, Wai ! Minister in the Georgieff Cabinet General Pentcho Zlateff, formed a nev [Government. The Zlateff Qovernmen restored the King's formal authority ii some measure, but in reality the Kinj was still a captive of his officers. ' NOT APPKOVED. The semi-military dictatorship o General.Zlateff, however, did not mcc 'with public approval. In February General ZlateH accused his prede cessor, Colonel Georgieff, of all kind of machinations against the King an< against the country's welfare* •..Tbi i'censorship which Georgiefl! had him self set up made the publication of hi, defence in Bulgaria impossible. Hi accordingly issued it through an inter view given to the Belgrade "Pravda.1 The interview appeared on April 12 and the "Pravda" sold 5000 copies ii Sofia! 'In this interview Georgief stated that in the midst of the attack Zlateff was making on him ZlatefE in vited him to join the Cabinet. Tin plan of establishing a State Council, t< curtail the prerogatives of the King was drawn up not by him but ii military quarters, and was approve( by General Zlateff. Georgieff als< denied that he and his- follower; wanted to destroy the Monarchy. This defence was extremely awk ward for Zlateff. On the day of pub lication of the interview ex-Premiei Tsankoff, now leader of the People 1! Social Party, the Bulgarian Nazi move ment, published a letter addressed t< his colleagues in the movement; de manding that the army must cease t< interfere in politics and that thi supreme influence of the King must bi restored. "I take whatever risks maj

come. The army and the nation are being alienated. Unity must be restored, but this requires that the army shall return to ■•barracks:": 'Finally he declared that his movement represents the gi-eatest force in the country.. , ■•■ • 'AN' OPEN BREACH^ ;.' : : •Tsankoft's-letter was regarded as an open breach- of the law. /.Parties had been forbidden, in May, 1934,; and yet he talked in the letter as if the People!s S/ocial Party stilK'existed. Zlateff ordered the internment of Georgieff and Tsankoff and of some of. the^iprominent .followers; they; haye now been released. The arrests; brought about the resignation' of'the three civilian Ministers, and Premier Zlateff in turn offered his resignation, which was accepted. On-April 21 the new Tosh'eff Government wasformed, and King Boris.took the unusual step of issuing a manifesto to his people announcing the appointment of tlip new Cabinet. - Tlie, Tosheff Cabinet undoubtedly means increased influence for the King. Many Ministers are personal friends of the King, tosheff, the 67-----year-old Premfer, was an esteemed friend of ex-K'ng Ferdinand,, though it was certainly not politics, and probably botany, always a favourite hobby of King Ferdinand's, that brought the two men together. Later Tosheff served in various diplomatic posts in the Balkans; during the World War hte was Bulgarian Minister in Vienna. Tosheff was known ,as a friend of France apd made no" secret of his animosity, against Germany.' After the war ■he ..retired, from/ - the Diplomatic Service, and lived, for some ~ years M Vienna, where he was a .familiar figure in a cafe frequented by foreign ' iourrialists. ■ ■ , -~ NOT EASY. .... '---~.. Politically his sympathies were for [ MahnofF, the leader of the Bulgarian. ' Democratic Party and the finest figure ;in Bulgarian politics;before or since 1 1914. ,But a return from dictatorship ' to democratic methods is by no means [ easy^and it is,certain that for a long 1 time to come Bulgaria will have to i suffer at least semiidictatorial methods. Tosheff in his diplomatically-worded 1 programme declared that while ?he' ; wanted to foster the democratic tradi- ; tions of Bulgaria, he wanted also to ' continue the economic methods prb- ] posed by the Georgieff regime in May last year. His first endeavours will be. 1 to make a hew Constitution and to rule lon the basis of it. .; : . All this, however, is vague. Bulgaria's difficulties are not yet at an ! end. M. Andrew Tosheff was, however, known as a skilled negotiator in. his diplomatic career, and this quality may help him, at least for the time being.. But there cannot be peace in the country until its people, with their strong political sense, have si-share once more in the shaping of their owh ■ de5tiny........'... : .. ~ Worshippers at the sacred Crocodile Pool in Karachi, dye their foreheads red. and "salaam" the oldest reptil* whenever he appears on the surface.