Bulgaria and Russia
Bulgaria has long been recognised by this country as an active ally of Germany, who has lent her territory for the use of the German army and air force for attacks on Yugoslavia and Greece; and our Government has no diplomatic relations with hers. But there has been no open breach with Russia. Indeed, the Bulgarian Government, knowing the strongly pro- Russian sympathies of the mass of the Bulgarian people, has been at pains to maintain formally friendly relations with the Soviet, and to conceal as far as possible the active steps she has been taking to enable Germany to use her territory as a jumping-off ground for attacks on the Crimea or the Caucasus. Recently more German troops have been pouring into Bulgaria; her aerodromes have been put at the disposal of the Luftwaffe; the ports are being organised for invasion across the Black Sea. Last week M. Molotov, the Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, made a strong protest, setting forth in detail the preparations which the Ger- mans have been allowed to make on Bulgarian territory, and the provocative measures which the Bulgarian Government itself has taken against the Soviet Union. Nor did he omit to mention its acts of repression against the Bulgarian people. In its .reply the Bulgarian Government does little more than deny the charges. But it matters little at this stage what it says. It is deeply committed to passive, if not active, par- ticipation in all Germany's plans. War between Bulgaria and Russia, her former protector, seems inevitable.
