Bulgaria

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 12 November 1946.

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Photo of Mr John Mack Mr John Mack , Newcastle-under-Lyme 12:00, 12 November 1946

The subject I wish to raise tonight is that of Bulgaria, particularly its relationship with this country, and also insofar as there is any likelihood in the near future, that certain developments there might affect the peace of the Balkans, and the peace of Europe on the Greek-Bulgarian frontier. Some hon. Members will remember that in April last year I had the unique experience and privilege of visiting Bulgaria after a very arduous and difficult journey. To my amazement, and surprise, I was received with what can fairly be described as a tumultuous welcome by the people of that country. It is true that I went in my capacity as a private Member. I had never previously visited that country, and I found that the welcome on all sides was stupendous. In some cases tens of thousands, and in other cases hundreds of thousands, gathered in the streets of the towns to greet the first Member of this House who had visited their country since the war.

I gathered that they were anxious for friendship, and my impression of the Bulgarians was that they were a kind-hearted, extremely hard-working and sincere nation, animated by a desire, above all things, to get into closer contact with the democracies of the West. They are a Slav people, and might almost be called kinsmen of the Russians. They speak a language which is very similar to Russian. In point of fact, the Russian language is derived from the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet. In 1878, after having been under the domination of the Ottoman Empire, they were freed by Russia. Therefore, it is very natural and understandable from the ethnographic, geographic, cultural and economic points of view, that Bulgaria should have a very close association with its big brother Russia. At the same time, the Bulgarians made it very clear to me, this did not debar them from the closest possible ties with Great Britain. They stated that, unfortunately, owing to misunderstandings which had crept up—artificial misunderstandings in many cases—it was more and more difficult to get together. I discovered that the prestige of Britain was high in spite of the last war, during part of which Bulgaria had been a satellite enemy country. Every effort of mine was directed to make the prestige of Britain as high as possible. I asked them, as they were anxious for friendship, if they had adverse criticism of our country, not to direct it against any party and they acceded to that request. When I went round Bulgaria and Rumania crowds, which aggregated to 3 million in the various towns and cities, gave me what could properly be described as the greatest greeting ever given any visitor to that part of the world.

I was amazed by one thing—and I put this to the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs—that the Foreign Office should necessarily accept the reports which come from Bulgaria from some of our representatives. I am not speaking unkindly, or in any way discourteously, of our representative in Bulgaria. I got on excellently with him, and invited him, or a member of his staff, to all Press conferences at which I spoke, and kept in close touch with him in every action I took. He congratulated me on the manner in which I did the job. Nevertheless, although he is entitled to his political opinions, I am amazed that we have representatives in Bulgaria, and countries like that, who do not understand the fundamental principles and conditions of the countries in which they are working. The reports we receive from them are, in most cases, accepted by the Foreign Office. May I remind the Under-Secretary of State that not long ago, half a dozen or so hon. Members of this House, who could certainly not be accused of being crypto-Communists or even Left Wing, went to Poland, and submitted a unanimous report? I wonder if that report was given any credence whatever. I am rather inclined to believe that the only reports which are accepted are reports from ambassadors, and not reports by hon. Members of the House of Commons who visit these countries. Therefore, whatever possibility there may be of a better understanding between Bulgaria and this country is being vitiated and rendered more difficult by the type of reports which are being received here and which, I am afraid—I am open to correction—are being accepted by our Foreign Office.

Recently there have been elections in Bulgaria—on 27th October—and it might be well if the House knew something about the figures. There are in Bulgaria at present 4,558,000 electors, of whom 4,205,000 voted on 27th October. There are two bodies, as it were, which are opposed to each other. One is what is known as the Fatherland Front, an organisation comprising, first, the Workers' Party, or Communists, the Social Democrats, who roughly correspond to the Labour Party, the Agrarians, who obviously deal more particularly with peasant problems, the Zveno Party, who may be said to represent the professional classes,, and the Radicals, who are insignificant and more to the Right. Between them these parties polled 2,980,000 votes, of which the Communists received 2,262,000, the Agrarians 559,000, the Social Democrats 78,000, the Zveno Party 76,000 and the Radicals a mere 8,000.

The opposition, and here I can speak from personal experience, were given every opportunity to hold meetings in every part of the country. They were given the utmost latitude of the Press, and I may say that some of their articles attacking the Government were far more vitriolic than Opposition Press articles in this country. They were far more personal, and attributed to the leaders of the Fatherland Front, Georges Dimitrov in particular, motives which would be considered hitting below the belt in Britain. The Opposition polled between them 1,225,000 votes, and had the allocation of 101 seats in the new National Assembly, whereas the total number of seats gained by the Fatherland Front in its entirety numbered 346. There have been all sorts of things said in our Press about these elections. Our Press looked with meticulous care into Bulgaria, and discovered that knitted underwear was being given by Government supporters to potential voters to induce them to vote for Government candidates. I never saw much knitted underwear in Bulgaria before the elections, and I would be surprised to discover much of it now. The Bulgarians are poor, and have to struggle to obtain the elementary needs of life, and cannot afford these luxuries. Votes have been bought and sold in Britain for a glass of beer, let alone knitted underwear, and for people to talk sanctimoniously about the Bulgarian elections being undermined by methods of this kind, shows that they are divorced from realities.

I talked with Dimitrov, acclaimed as the bravest man in all the world, hero of the Reichstag trial. Whatever one thinks about his politics, here is a man of great courage and character, a warm-hearted individual. I shall not easily forget—if the House will bear with me in making this observation—the welcome I got. He embraced me, gave me two bristly bearded kisses, which I warmly returned with interest, to the acclamations of the crowd. There was another interesting, and perhaps amusing, incident. Bulgaria is the land of roses; people are greeted with roses. I found myself garlanded with a bouquet of roses of every description, too heavy for me to carry. That is an indication of the warm-hearted way in which these people greeted me.

The elections were held on 27th October. I do not intend to say that they were absolutely immaculate, or that on no occasion was it possible for some misdirection, difficulty or misunderstanding to occur. I do say, sincerely and honestly, that in my opinion, as far as one could reasonably hope to judge—and I went where I wanted to go, and spoke to everyone to whom I wanted to speak, particularly the opposition—I saw no indication, on the part of the Government, of any desire to obstruct, impede, or to prevent legitimate opposition. I used the word "legitimate" advisedly. One finds in countries like that all kinds of oppositions, who use the cloak of democracy to undermine the State. Bulgaria admittedly fought on the side of Germany, but let us not forget her history. For five hundred years that country has suffered grievously at the hands of Turkey. In 1878 she gained her freedom for the first time. Her people are a race of peasants, naturally talented, gifted and hospitable. Without being guilty of exaggeration, I say that I have yet to see a more lovable, courageous or sincere people. They have made mistakes, which they readily admit, and I admire a man who admits his faults. That they have been the playthings of their ersatz German-imported monarchs they freely admit—"Foxy Ferdinand"—now aged, I believe, 87, and hiding somewhere in Austria—whose machinations are familiar to all students of history; then his son Boris, an ignominious weak creature who followed the policy of his father; and later King Simeon, a child aged nine, now in Egypt as a result of the proclamation of a republic in Bulgaria a little while ago, but who would otherwise normally have succeeded. The Bulgarian people are determined to sever themselves from any corrupt monarchy, and any contact they might have had with the Germans and their supporters, who were prevalent in the court.

To the everlasting glory of Bulgaria, whatever may have been its mistakes, on 9th September, 1944, a historic day in Bulgarian history, the Bulgarians fought with great valour in the cause of the Allies. They lost well over 30,000 of their men, killed, for the Allied cause. No one who knows them, and who was with them at that time, can deny them a meed of praise for the valorous part they played at that time. Yet we in this country are afraid to come into contact with them, for one reason or other which I cannot tell.

I do not know what goes on in the Foreign Office. I have never, in this House, said an unkind work personally about the Foreign Secretary. I have great respect for him, though I sometimes disagree with him. I try, to the best of my ability, to give him loyal support, but he is obviously overworked and under-informed. If he has to depend for his information on certain people whom we have in other parts of the world, heaven help the Foreign Secretary in carrying out a policy of peace and reconstruction in the Balkans. There is always the old bogy of Russia to trot out; that Russia is out to secure domination by territorial depredations in that part of the world. I spoke to the Russian chairman of the Allied Control Commission, and said to him, sincerely and honestly, that we in this country were anxious for friendship, not only with Russia, but with all the people of the Balkans; that we wanted a fair and square deal; that we have no aggressive intent; that we go there to do trade. He said that so far as he was concerned—and this was later confirmed by members of the Bulgarian Government—there was no objection to British people coming in and playing a useful part. But Dimitrov made it clear that the Bulgarians earn a primitive living scraping the barren soil—much of the country is mountainous and barren—in order to secure the elementary needs of life, and that they cannot be expected to pay reparations. Indeed they will not.

The right hon. Gentleman the Leader of the Opposition spoke of Bulgaria as a country which must "work its passage." He must remember it is no longer possible, in these difficult times, to extract the last ounce out of a country which is weakened not only by internecine strife but by the war, and Bulgaria by its subsequent heroic actions and sacrifices has fully vindicated its good name and should take an honoured place among the nations of the new democratic world. I would be very happy—and I say this not at all in modesty—to give ten minutes of my time to the Foreign Secretary and the Under- Secretary in order to teach them more about the Balkans than ever they will learn from textbooks or from distorted and twisted reports. I like a man who is efficient. The reason I say that is because I am conscious only too well of my own inefficiency in certain respects. If we do a thing, we should do it with all our heart and soul, and all our might. The present Press attacks between one country and another in which all kinds of suspicions are hurled alleging the bad intentions of other countries, have the result that whatever prospect there is of making peace in the Balkans becomes more and more difficult each day. Britain wants peace badly. We want Bulgarian tobacco, timber, attar of roses, fruit and fruit pulp, and hides and skins. We want these things which the Bulgarians can let us have, and we in turn must export our machinery' to them. They need our machinery, and by using that, and other products of this country, they can help not only our export trade, but the building up of their own country, and, thus establish once and for all the friendship which we are all seeking.

I want to say a few words upon the hypocritical and mealy-mouthed phrase which is used too often about "free and unfettered elections." I have never heard more humbug spoken about free and unfettered elections than is being spoken today. I ask my hon. Friend, who has rendered me every courtesy, and for whom I have considerable regard—he knows that and he will not misinterpret my remarks—whether this country proposes to interfere in Poland because Poland may have a Communist majority. Are we prepared at this very hour to render still more difficult the relationship between this country and France, merely because yesterday's election has shown that the Communists are now the largest single party? Are we to go to Czechoslovakia and say, "You have a Communist-controlled Government, and, therefore' we can have no relationship"? Of course, we are not going to do that. Other Governments may be Communist or Conservative, Liberal or Radical, nondescripts or anything they like, as far as I am concerned, so long as they are prepared to enter into friendly relationship with this country, and honour their obligations to us, just as we honour ours to them.

I turn to a situation which has developed on the Grecian side. Whatever I have to say is not said with the intention of being discourteous to the Greeks. I believe hon. Members have great respect for the fighting qualities of the Greeks, their great contribution to the arts and the yeoman part they played in the last war. I took the opportunity of speaking at great length to M. Tsaldaris, the Greek Prime Minister, recently. I told him that he would be ill advised to pursue the truculent propaganda which is being adopted in connection with the claims of Greece for what they call euphemistically "A rectification of their frontiers." I asked him what he meant by that and he said, "We want certain strategic heights which control the Plain of Plovdin in Eastern Roumelia." I said, "Have you not got enough?" And he replied, "Three times we have been invaded by these Bulgarians—in 1912–13, in 1916, and again in 1941. We are taking no chances." He admitted that he also had certain designs for land in Northern Epirus, which corresponds geographically with Southern Albania, and which would take in the town of Koritza. He also admitted that there were difficulties in connection with 'Yugoslavia. I suggested to him that he would be ill advised to pursue those claims, because the Bulgarians will not worry very much about it. They are anxious for peace. Bulgaria had peace with all its neighbours. They had a very commendable peace with Rumania after the return of the Dobruja. They were on terms of excellent relationship with Yugoslavia and Albania. They were even on good terms of friendship with Turkey, and their only difficulty was caused by Greece who had gained very considerably territorially in the last 50 years. Yet because Greece is largely a maritime country and has a friendly relationship with this country, M. Tsaldaris felt it would only be right and proper that they should take these heights in order to control the plains and thus prevent what he thought possibly might be a further Bulgarian attack.

There is no possibility of an attack on the part of Bulgaria against Greece. I shudder to think what the consequences of such an attack might be. Just imagine the situation with Russian forces dominant in that part of the world, and with a war of attrition, or whatever hon. Members may like to call such a war, with Bulgaria on one side and Greece on the other and in which Russia would take one part and we would take the other. It might be an extreme cataclysm the consequences of which no one could foretell. In the interests of peace and human decency, I say we in this country must not support any claims on the part of Greece for certain areas, be they never so small, which would tend to exacerbate the situation between those countries. The men who are building houses in this country today are not building houses to be blown to atoms in two years' time. They are building houses for peace. The people in this country can only be made to work if they believe that our foreign relationships are being ordered in that direction.

The present boundary between Bulgaria and Greece starts somewhere near Adrianople and goes for 486 kilometres—a distance of well over 300 miles—to Toumba, which is near the Yugoslav boundary. Three of the main rivers of Bulgaria flow into the Aegean Sea. They are the Struma and the Mesta and the Maritza. For a long time there has been controversy and considerable discussion about the fact that Bulgaria seeks to find an outlet in the Aegean. The natural port is Kavalla, because that port serves the main Bulgarian routes which converge in Western Thrace towards the Aegean. There is another port, Dedeagatch, which at one time was likely to be considerable and about which in 1923, and again in 1935, the Greeks were prepared to make a very slight compromise. The fact remains that although Western Thrace had a predominantly Bulgarian majority—which was proved by various investigations in 1920 and later—that land has been torn away from them, largely as a result of the association of King Constantine in 1916 with the Kaiser and certain Greek politicians. Venizelos, the venerable statesman of Greece, in 1912 said Greece had no pretensions to Western Thrace and to an outlet in the Aegean Sea and although he was determined to deny them Salonika, which abuts on the Aegean Sea, the territory east of Salonika, including Kavalla, should be ceded to Bulgaria. This struggle has gone on between the two countries for a long time.

I do not want to overstate my case. I am not denying, that, in the past, Bulgaria has suffered from having bad politicians. I do not say there has not been a certain amount of aggression. But the Bulgarian people have never sought to crush the Greeks, to brutalise them, nor to bring them under subjection. I would say to my hon. Friend that, whatever view he may have in this direction, many people in this country, and certainly many of us on these Benches, would resist any encroachment that might be made—and I hope it never will be made—by the Greeks on what is purely Bulgarian territory. I could have gone on much further, but I do not want to protract this Debate unduly.

Now, a few words about the Bulgarian future. One of the tragedies of this world is ignorance. When people get to know each other they find many points of interest in common. I only wish that more hon. Members would try to get to know more about the Bulgarian people. I have been called "the friend of Bulgaria," and I am very proud to be a friend of Bulgaria, and will continue to be the friend of that country, so long as its people stand for decency and human rights. The Government of that country, since 1944, have given the people a very measurable degree of freedom. I was able to see the opposition leaders, and to watch demonstrations taking place against the Government, at which opposition speakers were able to give free expression to their criticism in language much stronger than would have been used in this country, and, on all sides, I saw no indication whatever that people were repressed merely because of their political opinions.

In that country, we have heard of the case of a Minister, an ex-Socialist, who was sentenced to five years' imprisonment on an allegation that he was a member of a democratic Socialist Party—that, because he had enough courage to express his views, he was clapped in gaol. I investigated this case, and found that this had nothing to do with the case. The fact that he was a member of a Socialist Party or claimed democratic leanings was beside the point. He was charged with participating in a campaign which sought to undermine the loyalty of the army and the integrity of the State—a very different thing indeed, which would not be countenanced in this country. These rumours which reach Britain must be examined before being accepted. Indeed, I would be very happy to go there, as an experiment, at my own expense, in order to prove to the Foreign Secretary and my hon. Friend that I can solve any of the difficulties standing in the way of peace between Bulgaria and this country. In Heaven's name, how long are we in this country going to have all these forms of hatred and misunderstanding between one country and another? We fought this war for the brotherhood of human beings. We fought this war in order to establish the democratic ideals to which we have always been attached. Surely, in Bulgaria, we shall find those very ideals, although they have not got 700 years of democratic teaching behind them, as we have in this country? They have only recently emancipated themselves, and I say that they have done a magnificent job of work. To their everlasting credit, they arrested their Fascists, set up their people's courts, and tried and shot not merely the minor Fascists, but even an ex-Prime Minister of their country, and all those who had associated themselves with the Germans during the German campaign.

When I was there, it was amazing to me to discover that the Bulgarians pointed with pride to the fact that there was no racial discrimination in their country. Theirs is the only country on the continent of Europe, so far as I understand, which has never persecuted its Jewish minority of 47,000 people. They even hid them from the Germans in spite of the fact that the Germans overran their country. I think that every shade of political opinion can be drawn together into the fundamental democratic instincts of the people of that country, and, therefore, I ask my hon. Friend to shake the hands of the Bulgarians in friendship, so that the relationship between that country and ours may be brought much closer. In doing that, I believe that he will not only be doing a great job for our own loved country, but also for the principles of democracy to which we have all paid service from time to time in this House.