HAS DIMITROV BEEN REPLACED ?— Bulgarian Premier Goes To Russia On “Leave”

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 April 1949, Page 7

HAS DIMITROV BEEN REPLACED ?— Bulgarian Premier Goes To Russia On “Leave”

(Recd. 11 a.m.) WASHINGTON, April 15. A State Department spokesman expressed the belief today that the Bulgarian Premier, Mr Georgi Dimitrov, who has officially gone to Russia on “leave,” has actually given up control over the Soviet satellite nation. @ The State Department press officer, Mr Michael McDermott, said Mr Dimitrov’s “leave” seemed to provide the background to the recent dismissal of Mr Traicho Kostav, Deputy Premier, and the reported “purges” of other Communists in Bulgaria. Apparently these moves were related to the question of the official succession of Mr Dimitrov. Mr Kostov was No 2 Bulgarian Communist.

A Sofiia message says that a bare communique on the illness and leave of absence of Mr Dimitrov was published today without comment, but inforced circles in Sofia derided any reports abroad that he had retired either as Premier or as head of the party. The communique said Mr Dimitrov was ill and had been granted leave of absence, and that he was taking medical treatment in Russia.

“The central committee of the Bulgarian Cqmmunist Party today announced that the Prime Minister, Mr Georgi Dimitrov, had been granted leave because of illness and was in the Soviet Union receiving treatment,” says Reuter’s Sofia correspondent. “The committee also said that Mr Traicho Kostov, who was relieved of his post as Vice-Premier last month for ‘gross political and anti-party errors,’ had been nominated director of the National Library.”