Bulgaria “Strikes Blow At Sanctity Of Law”

Greymouth Evening Star, 4 October 1947, Page 6

Bulgaria “Strikes Blow At Sanctity Of Law”

(Rec, 9 a.m.) LONDON, October 3. A Foreign Office spokesman accused Bulgaria of “striking a grave blow at the sanctity of international law” in her reply to the British protest about the execution, of Mr Nikola Petkov, the Opposition leader. ■ The spokesman declared that the reply struck at the whole basis of international co-operation by suggesting that Britain had no right to secure the implementation of article 2 of the Bulgarian peace treaty, guaranteeing human rights. The Bulgarian Government sent a Note to Britain rejecting as “a contradiction of all the principles of international law” the British protest last week on the execution of Mr Petkov, leader of the Peasant Party. The Note declared that the Bulgarian Government could not recognise the right of any State to interfere in the interest of an understanding, between the two countries that Britain should depict the Bulgarian Government as the dictatorship of a minority- , , The Note expressed regret and astonishment that Britain had chosen the moment of signing the peace treaty to attribute to the Bulgarian Government “monstrous aims and intentions.”