CLERGYMEN CONFESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27017, 28 February 1949, Page 5

CLERGYMEN CONFESS

Information for Britain ancl America BULGARIAN ESPIONAGE TRIALS New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec. 9.50 p.m. SOFIA, Feb. 26. Yanko Nikolov Ivanov, superintendent of the Methodist Church in Bulgaria, confessed in court that he had collected information on political, economic and military affairs for the British and Americans. Ivanov and 14 other prominent Bulgarian pastors are accused of espionage, treason and black marketing. Ivanov prefaced his confession with: “Do not believe in a man because when he is in trouble he frequently lies. I will now confess my crimes. I will tell you that I am a criminal and a sinner.”

Ivanov said he had toured the country several times collecting information which he had passed on to Miss Melany Turner, the principal of an American school in Bulgaria, and later to her successor, Miss Helen Cooper He received about 2,000,000 leva (about £10,000) from Miss Turner. In 1946 he made a report on the Bulgarian political situation to the World Council of Churches. “ I pointed out an error made by the British and Americans on September 3, 1944, when they did not occupy Bulgaria.” Ivanov said he had rejected Communism from the beginning but after his arrest he had a chance to lift up the curtain —to see enlightenment. Vassil Ziapkov, who heads the list of Bulgarian pastors accused of espionage and treason, told the court that he admitted the charges. He repeated almost verbatim the written confession contained in the Government Yellow Book. . , , , Ziapkov said that after he studied in England and the United States he returned to Bulgaria very pro-English and pro-American. He began his espionage activities in 1932. Ziapkov attacked the World Council of Churches, claiming that it had been converted into an agency of American capitalism merely to fight Communism. “ Now I realise that I have been in the service of great enemies of my country. These enemies could not abide a flourishing Bulgaria alongside Greece tom by disorder.” The 15 defendants, ranging in age from 28 to 55, sat on three benches facing the judges. They wore no clerical collar or distinguishing mark, being dressed .in ordinary business suits. , A 7000-word indictment charges the accused with having formed an intelligence centre to collect information for the West, with having sought Western occupation of Bulgaria, and with having spread rumours of war and slanders against Russia. In addition they were charged with black market currency dealing. With tears streaming down his cheeks and his voice cracking, the Bulgarian pastor, Nikola Naumov, president of the Supreme Council of the United Evangelical. Churches of Bulgaria, repeatedly paid tribute to the Communist State, renounced his previous beliefs, and asked for a chance to work as an honest man. Naumov was the first to be called of the 15 church leaders. He pleaded guilty to all charges, and for several hours spilled forth a stream of repentant confession. He wept with emotion when reviewing his past alleged activities against the State. He said that Cyril Black, secretary of the United States Political Mission in Bulgaria before the peace treaty and now a Princeton University professor, had asked him to take him information of military factories. On another occasion he said Black requested information on the people’s attitude towards the Communists, and other political and economic data. Confessing that he had supplied this information, Naumov blamed Black, describing the American as a “very sly man and a man who knows how to listen.” Naumov mentioned Rockefeller, Ford, and other wealthy Americans as being behind the church organisations for which he is alleged to have collected information. He declared he was won over “ by the good behaviour of the security officials.”