[C 122] 7 JAN 1931

(4/162/30)

BRITISH LEGATION,

Sofia.

December 31st, 1930.

My dear Sargent,

In paragraph 3 of my letter of December 22nd I foreshadowed further light on the question how it comes to pass that there is still a Bulgarian minority in Greece. The following is not very precise I am afraid, but it is all I can do at the moment and I think it broadly covers the ground.

The great bulk of the Bulgarian minority is in Western Macedonia, i.e. in the corner between the Albanian frontier and the Vardar. Further east, round Salonica and in Thrace, there are very few Bulgarians left; the Greeks cleaned up those districts pretty thoroughly in 1913 (by expulsion) and after the Great War (by “exchange of populations”), for the obvious reason that to leave a Bulgarian population there might at any time facilitate a Bulgarian descent to the coast; so that only a handful of waifs and strays remain – mostly round about Salonica and Drama, I believe. The Bulgarians in the extreme west, on the other hand, presented no such danger to them, and therefore they haven't bothered about them and have let them remain. Altogether the Bulgarians in Greece are said to number about 80,000; certainly not more than 100,000.

Thus for the reason indicated above – i.e. because they are no danger – and also because they are Slavs and not Greeks, Venizelos can afford to treat his Bulgarians as a minority and is ready to do so on liberal lines. But the moment he does so repercussions are set up across the frontier in Yugoslavia in the districts inhabited by precisely the same people. Hence Belgrade can not allow Venizelos to carry out his good intentions. That is the essence of the matter, and it is an important factor in keeping Bulgaria and Greece at odds.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed) Sydney Waterlow