KING BORIS DEAD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 204, 30 August 1943, Page 5

KING BORIS DEAD

BULGARIA’S DICTATOR SUCCUMBS CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS OF CAUSE <By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Recd. 7.5 p.m.) London, Aug. 29. Tile death occurred yesterday afternoon of King Boris of Bulgaria—according to the German Overseas News Agency, it was due to heart and lung troubles. The successor to the Bulgarian throne is Boris’ six-vear-ol 1 son, who has been proclaimed as King Simeon 11. According to the Bulgarian radio a council of Ministers, headed by the Prime Minister. Professor Filoff, will assume full control of the country until the appointment of the Regency Council of three demanded under the Constitution until the young King reaches his 18th birthday.

Berlin radio, referring to the death of King Boris, said: “The nation’s grief is immeasurable. It is the sacred duty of all to fulfil his legacy and continue on the path he has shown us, united and unswerving.” Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent says: “Germany will have to take stronger measures to avert an upheaval in Bulgaria. King Boris’ death might of itself provoke a crisis. [King Boris, since the outbreak, has played a subtle game of adherence to the Tripartite Pact and paved the way for the German onslaught on Greece and. Yugoslavia. The reward was the aggrandisement of Bulgaria by the addition of parts of Dobruja from Rumania, Macedonia from Yugoslavia, and Thrace from Greece. However, King Boris resisted all Hitler’s attempts to induce him to send troops to Russia. Recently King Boris, like the other Balkan satellites, was trying to get a foothold in the Allied camp.

Quoting a reliable Balkan source, the New York Times’ Berne correspondent says King Boris was shot in the abdomen three times as he was entering his motor-car at a small station outside the capital after returning by special train from Hitler’s field headquarters. The shots were fired by a pro-Russian police inspector.