WAR CABINET IN GAOL

Evening Star, Issue 18121, 10 November 1922, Page 5

WAR CABINET IN GAOL

WAITING FOR THREE YEARS. BULGARIA’S BILL OF ATTAINDER. It is not generally known that the members of a once-faraoua European Cabinet have been lying in gaol for three years, and that their trial has been proceeding since October 10 last. They are the Ministers of M. Wasil Radoslavoff’s Cabinet, which brought Bulgaria info the war on the side of Germany, and a message published gives a very interesting account of this extraordinary State trial. Unfortunately, M. Radoslavoft, the head of that Cabinet, and the picturesque villain of the drama of Bulgaria’s disastrous folly in throwing in her lot with the Central Powers and Turkey, was careful enough to flee to Germany in October, 1918, so that ho does not stand in the dock with his former colleagues. One member of his Cabinet, M. Bakalov, the Minister of Finance, has died in prison. The eleven who are left are : Christo Gcorgiov, ex-Minister of the Interior. and an intimate friend of the cxTsar Ferdinand. Peter Patschev, cx-Minister of Education, who kept a diary during the war. It contains all the State secrets of the time, and a great deal of political gossip. The document has fallen into the hands of the authorities. Dimiter Touschev, a well-known Finance Minister. Christo I wan Popov, cx-Minister of Justice, and Bulgaria's representative at the Peace Conference of Brest Lilovsk. Penju Dintschev, ex-Minister of Agriculture. Dobri Pctkov, ex-Minister of Public Works. Nikola Apostolov, ex-Minister of Railways. Welitscbko Kosnitechki. Lieutenant-general Nikola Jekov, Com-mander-in-Chicf of the Bulgarian array during the war, and War Minister for forty days. Major-general Kliment Bojadschiev, cxCoramander of the First Bulgarian Amy. Major-general Kalin Niedeuov. Indeed a remarkable array to stand in the dock. The eleven prisoners are marched every forenoon, under armed escort, through the streets of Sofia from the prison to the Court of Justices, and thou hack to prison at lunch-time; in the afternoon the same thing happens. Four times every day the people of the Bulgarian capital'see’that mournful procession pass; but the sight has now become such a common one that scarcely anyone turns his head to look at the prisoners who were once the rulers of the country.

And'the public, too, has long ago ceased to flock to the court where the trial is being held. Day after day, week after week, month after mouth the case has gone on. Even tho Press lias almost ceased' to report the proceedings. “The endless case ” it is calledThe court presents a curious sight.. Ac a long (able sit no (ewer than seventeen judges’. Seven of them are judges of tho High Court, and. tho remaining ton arc ■•people's judges,” appointed (specially to hear this case. They arc mostly peasants in roufh dress, without collars, unkempt. Opposite them arc the eleven accused unkempt, too, with ashen-grey faces, and in all cases hair which is whitening under the strain of prison life and the trial. The charges against these men are briefly 1 That the Cabinet declared war without the consent of the fiobranjc, or Parliament. , , , • t 2. That it leased the Stale coal mine, of Peiiiik lo the Germans for nmcty-niiic years. , , 3 That the seizure of enemy properly took place without a parliamentary vote. 4 That the severity of the military penal code was increased without consent of Parliament. . . .. , b. That several Ministers were bribed by army contractors. ‘6. That the whole Cabinet diplomatically prepared the way tor war on the side of Germany without considering t.io au* vantages which were offered by entering the war on the other side. These charges are set forth in a volume of 832 closely-printed foolscap pages—surely a record legal ihe trial opened with the reading oi it, and that lasted nine days. . Then several weeks were occupied by the statements of tho eleven prisoners ami their advocates. That was lollowed by Ion?, dreary months, daring which witness after witness went into the box. spoke, was examined and cross-examined. 1. nere were hundreds of them, ami there are manv more to come. The prisoners were arrested and charged under the provisions of a curious Act passed specially by the mlddlc-class-cum-peasant Government of M. Stamboliski. It is termed the “Law for the Prosecution of the Originators of the National Defeat, and is a sort of Bid of' Attainder It is not merely a law; it may almost be said to be a verdict and a. judgment as well. It is something new in law-making-a legal revolution. , , , , . . It decrees that everybody who took part in the declaration of war without tho consent of the Sobranje is to be punished with hard labor for life. _ Anyone who acted in his own personal interest in ihe matter is to be sentenced to death. But the most remarkable provision is that those who played a role in the diplomatic preparation of the war are liable to the same punishment, besides being responsible for the whole costs of tho war! Long legal arguments regarding this Act have taken place in court, ami that impedes progress. Two whole weeks were occupied in debating the point that liability for the costs of the war amounts to an aggravated form of the confiscation of private fortunes, which is forbidden by the Constitution.

The war cost Bulgaria the equivalent of £400,000,000 nominally, or. at the pruFcnt rate of exchange, £14,250,000. That means that each defendant would be liable to a fine of about £1,300,000! Such a sum is one which the defendants and generations of their descendants could not hope to make good..