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Bulgarian Elections (Reports)

Volume 436: debated on Wednesday 30 April 1947

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asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1) what figures concerning the beatings-up and killings during the Bulgarian elections were given by the acting head of the British Political Mission in Sofia;(2) when is the investigation of all official and unofficial reports concerning the Bulgarian elections expected to be concluded; and if the preliminary estimate that 95 organisers were arrested, 102 people beaten up, 45 meetings broken up and 16 opposition members killed, has yet been substantiated by that investigation.

As I informed my hon. Friend on 31st March, the official and unofficial reports received concerning the Bulgarian elections have been examined and compared by His Majesty's Government, whose conclusion is that the Bulgarian elections were accompanied by a considerable degree of terrorism directed against supporters of the opposition parties. It was not, of course, practicable for British representatives to conduct detailed investigations into every report of beatings up and killings such as would enable His Majesty's Government to establish with certainty precise and exhaustive final figures, but they have no reason to suppose that the figures quoted by my hon. Friend are not approximately correct.

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if the daily newspaper "Svoboden Narod" was one of the unofficial sources of reports concerning the Bulgarian elections.

All the Bulgarian daily press contained reports on the elections, which were carefully studied.