871.00/10–1145: Telegram
The American Representative in Rumania (Berry) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 11—10:40 p.m.]
789. I am delighted with the Secretary’s announcement,17 as reported in the Radio Bulletin, that he is sending shortly to Rumania and Bulgaria a representative with an entirely new approach for the purpose of reappraising the situation. I am happy too that the man chosen is one who has behind him a long and impressive record of fact-finding and reporting.
The Government press has also reacted enthusiastically to this announcement although for quite other reasons as it reads into the announcement a recognition of the need to reevaluate the supposed opinions and recommendations of the American Government’s representatives in Rumania.
Parties in opposition to the Government are depressed by announcement as they believe Groza government will use it as a pretext for maintaining itself in power until additional American representative has made his report and American Government has confirmed or altered stand taken by Secretary Byrnes. They know that delay means a further loss of prestige for King and further opportunities for Communists to entrench themselves in power.
- At his press conference of October 10, the Secretary of State announced the appointment of Mark Ethridge of the Louisville Courier Journal as his special representative to investigate conditions in the Balkans preparatory to the recognition of the governments of Rumania and Bulgaria. For a summary of the Secretary’s statement, see telegram 336, October 12, to Sofia, vol. iv, p. 346.↩