874.00/5–2445: Telegram
The United States Representative in Bulgaria (Barnes) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 24—9:21 a.m.]
268. At 4 o’clock this morning, G. M. Dimitrov turned up at my residence ([apparent garble] at Sofia) having escaped from house arrest yesterday afternoon and having been asked at 2:30 this morning to leave a British occupied apartment because of the receipt of instructions to that effect from the Foreign Office to the acting Brit Political Rep.53 Dimitrov was “tipped off” yesterday morning by a [Page 221] Communist friend that within the next 24 hours he would be seized by the militia and ultimately done away with in one manner or another. Dimitrov is now at my residence and I am seeking contact with persons of importance in and about the Govt who are friends of his and who, on the basis of informal soundings, may be able to advise a course of action that will not compromise the mission and that at the same time may save the life of Dimitrov. I shall telegraph the results of these prospective talks this afternoon and present whatever recommendations seem advisable from this end. I am bearing in mind section III–IV Note One FSR;54 also that we are in the second armistice period and that according to our point of view the actual language of the armistice is controlling. Gen. Crane is informed.
Repeated to Moscow as No. 128, AmPolAd as No. 143.
- James H. U. Lambert, First Secretary of the British Mission in↩
- Note 1 of this section of the Foreign Service Regulations was as follows: “Involuntary refuge. The extension of refuge to persons outside the official or personal household of a diplomatic or consular officer can only be justified on humanitarian grounds. Diplomatic and consular officers may afford refuge to uninvited fugitives whose lives are in imminent danger from mob violence but only during the period active danger continues. Refuge must be refused to persons fleeing from the pursuit of the legitimate agents of the local government. In case such persons have been admitted, they must be either surrendered or dismissed from the mission or consulate.”↩