Memorandum from Acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew to President Harry S. Truman, Current Foreign Developments

TOP SECRET DECLASSIFIED E.O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) Dept. of State letter, Aug. 10, 1972 By NLJ-HI- NARS Date 6.26.75 May 25, 1945 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Subject: Current Foreisn Develonments Life of Outstanding Bulgarian Lender Threntened. G. M. Dimitrov, Bulgaria's most importent liberal leader, has fled for his life to the house of Bernes, our political representative in Sofia. Dimitrov consistently opposed all Fascist and collaborationist regimes in Bulgaria. He was General Secretary of the Agrarians, Bulgaria's largest party, until the Comminists forced him out in March. He has since been under house arrest, though charged with nothing. Yesterday the Senior Regent of Bulgaria and the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church assured Barnes that *Dimitrov is guilty of no crime against Bulgaria, its people, the Allies or any moral code". Both added: "Any honest, patriotic Bulgarian whose ideals have not been warped by Comminist doctrine would urge the need to save / Dimitrov". Dimitrov took asylum with Barnes because he learned he would be seized and killed within 24 hours. When Bernes mot in touch with the Prime Minister the hunt for Dimitrov led by the Communist Minister of the Interior had been "in full cry all day. The Prime Minister said the Minister of the Interior had not even informed him and called off the hunt at once. He also agreed that every effort should be mede to find a solution for Dimitrov's future which would not arouse world opinion against Bulgaria and the Fatherland Front and would also not embarress the Russians, Bulgaria's Communists or the Bulgarian Government. Barnes