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Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎9r] (17/978)

The record is made up of 1 file (478 folios). It was created in 6 Sep 1946-14 Nov 1947. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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13
Southern Albania whose centre is Argyro-
castro (or Gjinokaster). Unfortunately
little or no reliable information about this
area—which, together with the rest of
Northern Epirus, has long been a bone of
contention between Albania and Greece—
has reached this country during the last
P*ar or more, and it is consequently im
possible to tell what the real feelings of the
inhabitants are.
Bulgaria
Another important phase in the “ fight
against the remnants of bourgeois reac
tion ” in Bulgaria has begun: General
Damian Velchev, co-founder, with the
present Foreign Minister, M. Georgiev, of
the Zveno Party, and Minister of War
under him from 1944 till 1946, has been
cited by the Government of to-day as a
traitor to his country and has ceased even
to be Bulgarian Minister at Berne.
General Velchev is a vigorous and re
doubtable man, and the chief interest of
General Stanchev’s trial (see Summary
414) was the elaborate attempt then made
to implicate him as well. The version of
events put out by the official Bulgarian
news agency An office of the East India Company and, later, of the British Raj, headed by an agent. on the 25th October was that
in view of these grave accusations he had
been summoned to Sofia to ‘ ‘ explain, ’ ’ but
that he had judged it more prudent to re
main defiantly in Switzerland and had in
consequence been dismissed. Actually the
General seems to have anticipated dismissal
by resigning of his own accord : this he did
after publicly stating at Berne that the
charges and insinuations made against him
were malicious falsehoods. Meanwhile the
consequences for the Zveno Party are likely
to be serious, and M. Georgiev himself in
particular must be feeling highly un
comfortable.
Still more arrests have been made among
influential non-Communists left at home :
(quite a number are safe, as General
Velchev was, in Bulgarian legations
abroad). M. Gichev, perhaps the most
outstanding Agrarian now left, was taken
into custody on the 17th October, and
since then many others, including Professor
Ganev, the former first Regent, and MM.
Burov, Girginov and Nikola Mushanov—
all veteran politicians enjoying wide re
spect—have been arrested too. It is
believed that in most, if not all, of these
cases legal proceedings will not be taken;
some of the older men have been ordered
to live in various separate places in
Northern Bulgaria, well away from Sofia
and the long Greek frontier and not too
close to each other, and have been released
on agreeing to set off immediately. What
is happening now, in fact, is that the
various Opposition elements are being
dispersed in virtual exile in different parts
of the country, while a homogeneous
political structure is being consolidated in
the capital and in the main provincial
towns. Among those still left at liberty
in Sofia are Asen Stambolisky, son of the
famous Agrarian premier who was
murdered 25 years ago, and Kosta Lulchev,
leader of the genuine Social Democrats
(whose little party is now lying low).
Meanwhile 22 more “ Fascist conspirators ”
—according to the Sofia wireless—have
been apprehended at Plovdiv.
The Constituent (or “ Grand National ”)
Assembly, which was first convened exactly
one year ago, was originally given twelve
months in which to discuss and vote the
new Republican Constitution as drafted
for them by the then (Georgiev) Govern
ment. So frequent and so various, however,
have been the distractions of this now
greatly truncated body that the whole year
has gone by without the Constitution being
passed. Accordingly, on the 25th October,
the remaining members solemnly approved
a law extending their powers for a second
year, while a Government communique
blandly explained to the world that the
present Assembly “ enjoyed the full confi
dence of the entire Bulgarian people,” and
that with so many economic and adminis
trative problems outstanding it would have
been a pity for the nation’s energies to
be side-tracked by new parliamentary
elections.
H.M. Minister—who has been spending
a few days in London for consultations at
the Foreign Office—reports that the
National Committee of the Fatherland
Front has laid it down that in future it will
take all political decisions itself and that
the component party executives will hence
forward do no more than carry these out.
The Communist noose is thus being pulled
just a little tighter than before; for up till
now the “ fellow-traveller ” party execu
tives could at least deliberate and make
recommendations on their own. Another
significant ruling of the National F.F.
Committee is that all youth organisations ,
except the Communist one are to be wound
up at once.
The Archbishop of York spent a short
time at Sofia last week; he was received by
M. Georgiev on the 1st November. A very
different recent visitor was Dimiter Vlahov,
President of the Macedonian Federal
Republic, into which Marshal Tito hopes
soon to see Bulgarian Macedonia absorbed.

About this item

Content

This file contains a set of Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries published by the Foreign Office. The summaries are numbered, and begin from 356 at the back of the file, and end with number 416 at the front. The weekly reports contain military and political intelligence spanning all theatres of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath, and are divided in to sections by geographic region.

Extent and format
1 file (478 folios)
Arrangement

The papers are arranged in approximate chronological order from the front to the rear of the file.

Physical characteristics

Foliation: the foliation sequence (used for referencing) commences at the front cover with 1, and terminates at the inside back cover with 480; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio.A previous foliation sequence, which is also circled, has been superseded and therefore crossed out.

Written in
English in Latin script
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Ext 6116/46(S) 'Secret Weekly Political Intelligence Summaries, nos 356-416, August 1946-November 1947' [‎9r] (17/978), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, IOR/L/PS/12/1167, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100066445302.0x000012> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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