THE BULGARIAN TREATY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26232, 16 August 1946, Page 7

THE BULGARIAN TREATY

CASE FOR DEFENCE UNWILLING COLLABORATOR PLUNDERED BY GERMANS PARIS. Aug. 14. M. George Kulishev substituted at the last minute ,for the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kimon Georgiev. In pleading his country’s cause before the plenary session of the Peace Conference, he said the new Bulgaria aid not wish to minimise the crimes of those who threw their country into war on the side of Germany. It had severely punished those who made the hateful alliance with Germany, declared war against Britain and America, transformed Bulgaria into a military base for Hitler, and acted so despicably that Russia had to declare war against Bulgaria. M. Kulishev claimed that Bulgaria afterwards modestly contributed to the struggle against Hitler. M. Kulishev, who spoke to halfempty benches, denied that the Bulgarian Army participated in German aggression in Greece and Jugoslavia. Bulgarian troops acted only as occupation troops. The Bulgarian people had risen in arms three times in the last 20 years against the Fascist usurpers. M. Kulishev asked the conference to ensure Bulgaria’s access to the JEgean Sea by the restoration of Western Thrace. He said the coastal territory could not live without the hinterland; similarly the hinterland could not ensure its own economic requirements without an outlet to the sea. Loss of the coastline robbed Bulgaria of its essential geographical lines of communication with the outside world, causing poverty, stagnation, and deprivation. The only war fought in Bulgaria in the real sense of the word was war against Hitlerite Germany. That was why the Bulgarian people resented still being called an ex-enemy people. Referring to the Greek demands for guarantees against the danger of future aggression, M. Kulishev said that Greece was claiming territory m which there was not a single Greek village. , , . M. Kulishev said it was odd for the Greek Government to hold Bulgaria mainly responsible for the damage suffered in Greece, because no war operations were conducted by Bulgaria on Greek territory. The damage was done almost exclusively by the Germans. It was impossible for Bulgaria to pay reparations to Greece. She was actually a German-occupied country which the Germans plundered and devastated. . . _ Expressing gratitude to _ Russia, Britain, and America for giving up their reparations claims, M. Kulishev said the claims of Greece seemed all the more incomprehensibe, unfounded. and unjust.

CYPRUS AND GREECE REQUEST TO CONFERENCE (Rec. 1.15 a.m.) ATHENS, Aug. 15. The Central Committee of the Cypriot Association in Athens telegraphed to the Paris Conference asking for examination and solution of the question of union between Cyprus and Greece. It also sent a message to”M. Tsaldaris asking him to include Cyprus among the Greek claims.

GREEKS INDIGNANT MANY ATROCITIES CITED DEMAND FOR PUNISHMENT PARIS. Aug. 14„ M. Tsaldaris. in reply to the Bulgarian statement, bitterly attacked Bulgaria and declared that Bulgaria had invaded Greece thrice in a generation. It was false that her role in Greece and Jugoslavia was confined to occupation duties. He said Thrace should not be given to Bulgaria. It was unjust for countries which supported aggression to benefit more than the victims. He cited a number of acts of aggression by Bulgaria and affirmed that there was a Minister in the present Bulgarian Government responsible for a number’ of persecutions of the Greek people. ■ M. Tsaldaris said Bulgaria had not in fact deserted Germany as soon as she could. Russian troops had to enter Bulgaria before Bulgaria bowed to the necessity of breaking with Germany. Bulgarians during the war surpassed themselves in the cruelty of their methods of extermination. To allow a war-guilty State to go unpunished might have a sinister significance. “Such lack of punishment would, in fact, constitute a reward for countries joining up with powerful aggressors, and would constitute a grave warning to the peoples who were putting confidence in the justice of the United Nations that they might have again to sacrifice in future their sons and their homes." M. Tsaldaris said the spectacle of an enemy country making claims against an Allied country which was the victim of aggression must arouse deep indignation. • “ As far as Greece is concerned, she must consider this a justification of her policy towards Bulgaria,” he said. '

HUNGARY’S DIFFICULTIES OPPRESSED BY NEIGHBOURS (Rec. 10 p.m.) PARIS, Aug. 14. Hungary’s democratic Government intended to give the country peace and Cordial relations' with its neighbours, but differences were still to be settled between Hungary and Rumania and Czechoslovakia, said the Hungarian Foreign Minister, M. Gyoengyoesy. Giving North Transylvania to Hungary had not solved the problem between Rumania and Hungary. There was still'a minority problem. He therefore asked the conference to invite Rumania to begin conversations with Hungary in an attempt to solve the problems between themselves, or, if this failed, to send a commission of inquiry with instructions to report back to the conference. Hungary claimed the return of only a fifth of Transylvania, which was part of Hungary before the war. Referring to the differences with Czechoslovakia, M. Gyoengyoesy said Hungary was stupefied to find that thousands of Hungarians living in Slovakia were expelled from Czechoslovakia and their property confiscated, the use of the Hungarian language banned in public, no Hungarian publications permitted, Hungarians not allowed to have radio sets, and private tuition in the Hungarian language punished, M. Gyoengyoesy also asked that an international commission visit Czechoslovakia to investigate the minorities’ problem.