BULGARIA’S DILEMMA

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 88, Issue 125, 27 May 1944, Page 4

BULGARIA’S DILEMMA

BULGARIA is now poised on the horns of a dilemma. If she breaks with Germany she must bow to Nazi wrath; if she remains Hitler’s vassal she must incur the penalties of a belligerent against Russia. Either way she tiyns she must pay for the privilege of acting as the highwayman of the Balkans. Bulgaria never desired to enter the actual fighting. King Boris, son-in-law of the King of Italy, was impressed by the nature of Mussolini’s mistake. Had Italy kept out of the actual fighting she might have been successful in picking up some unconsidered trifles. Immediately she engaged in the combat, however, the liabilities could not be limited. Boris desired to gain the pickings without involving h-s country in unlimited liabilities. He agreed to the Bulgarian army going so far as to police the Balkan countries that were occupied by the Germans, thereby releasing the Nazi forces for employment elsewhere. It appears that Hitler did not consider that this assistance went far enough, and he invited Boris to go to Berchtesgaden for further conversations. Boris went, and died suddenly of heart failure on September 28. Why his heart failed is not yet convincingly established. It was rumoured that he had been seriously wounded by a police inspector on August 24. The seven-year-old Crown Prince Simeon being too young to ascend the throne, a Regency Council was appointed. This should have smoothed Hitler’s path to the goal o£ complete co-operation by the Bulgars. The scheme has failed. The Bulgars have a traditional sympathetic bond with the Russians which has been reciprocated by the Moscovite even under the Tzarist regime. The old Bulgar language formed the basis for the Russian tongue, and there have been cultural and racial sympathies developed down the years, and particularly so during the last century when Slav consciousness became strong in the Balkan area. The Bulgarian Government at Sofia has consequently been unable to lead the Bulgarian people to war against Russia. Active military participation by Bulgaria against the Russians or even a declaration of war with its consequent breaking-off of diplomatic relations has not been accomplished, but economic relations with Germany have become more intimate. In the autumn of 1942 Bulgaria received 14,000 tons of Ukrainian barley in exchange for 15,000 tons of maize. Last year Germany delivered (1000 tons of barley and 35.000 tons of rye in order to ensure the Bulgarian food supply till the harvest. In return Bulgaria undertook to send to the Reich from its own harvest 6600 tons of maize and 35,000 tons of wheat. During the present year a new agreement has no doubt been under consideration, for Germany’s food situation has deteriorated. Not only has she lost the wheat supplies of the Ukraine, and much of last year’s harvest did not reach the Reich, but, Germany's own potato crop was poor. Russian pressure upon Bulgaria at present is no doubt due to the desire to bring about a cessation of these wholesale exchanges of foodstuffs- or of German borrowings from the Bulgarian larder later on in the year.