Fluential members of our Labour Social gathering. How all this was performed by a monarch and some tons of of mercenary henchmen it might take a lot house to inform.
Issues had been, Swire believed, about to enhance.
Tsar Boris is now lifeless not, I believe, by chance. His entourage have confronted firing squads. The top of secret diplomacy and criminality was very small certainly a couple of hundred st. It was clear, in 1934, that this head have to be lopped off and I personally stated so to Velchev. However he was ever reluctant to shed blood. . .
Briefly, then, Bulgaria was led into conflict, along side Germany, by a handful of adventurers. Instantly she was ready she overthrew and liquidated them. Then she did her uttermos to “work her passage residence.” That Russian affect in Bulgaria is now sturdy is pure first, as a result of Russia liberated Bulgaria from the Turks . . . and the Bulgarians are a grateful individuals, near Russia geographically, racially and linguistically: and secondly, as a result of we ourselves play our playing cards badly. . ..
My plea, then, is for a pleasant hand to Bulgaria. She has purged herself. She aspires to higher issues. There’s a lot that’s admirable in her individuals. She has brave leaders with excessive beliefs and proved motives, who deserve confidence. Absolutely we must always now stop to carp and sneer and lengthen, as a substitute, the encouraging hand of friendship?
There may be little question that in lots of his political judgements, statements and actions Swire may be accused of naivety and hot-headedness. His admiration of Velchev was so intense that it prevented the asking of some necessary questions, extra particularly as to the diploma of assist Velchev loved amongst the lots; the Aegean scheme was inconceivable given British pursuits in Holding Cyprus; and British diplomacy in Bulgaria, although unadventurous and missing in creativeness, was extra rational than Swire would admit. However, there can be few who would wish to reject his plea for the extending of the hand of friendship and it’s the hope of this writer that his personal contribution to this quantity will assist to try this, a minimum of on the planet of historic scholarship.
Swire to the editor of The Manchester Guardian, 12 Oct. 1946.
Trips to Balkan 