LEAGUE OE HATIONS.

Communicated to the C .358.1934, I . Members of the Council. ' Geneva, August 27th, 1934,

PROTECTION OF MINORITIES IN ROIMANIA.

PETITIONS FROM M. ANGHEL STOYANOFF, CONCERNING THE SITUATION OF THE BULGARIAN MINORITY IN SOUTHERN .

(Documents C.646, 0.659.1933.I and 0.153.1934.1).

Note by the Se ere tary-General.

Under the Council resolution of June 13th, 1929, paragraph 4, i), the Secretary-General has the honour to circulate, for the information of the Members of the Council, a letter addressed to him by the Representatives of Panama, Denmark and France with regard to the examina­ tion of two telegraphic petitions and a supplementary statement from M. Anghel Stoyanoff, relating to the situa­ tion of the Bulgarian minority in the Southern Dobruja, and of the observations of the Roumanian Government thereon.

In accordance with the Council resolution referred to above, the documents concerning this question are kept in the archives of the Secretariat at the disposal of the Members of the Council.

Letter from the representatives of Panama, Denmark and France to the Secretary-General.

In accordance with the Council resolution of October 25th, 1920, a Minorities Committee composed of the represen­ tatives of Panama (as Chairman), Denmark and France was called upon to consider two telegraphic petitions and a supplementary statement dated respectively September, October and November 1933, from M. Angel Stoyanoff relat­ ing to the situation of the Bulgarian minority in the southern Dobruja, together with the observations on the subject sub­ mitted by the Roumanian Government (Documents C.646.1933.I ., C.659.1933.I and C .153.1934.I).

The object of these petitions was to draw the atten­ tion of the League of Nations to certain acts of persecution and terrorism to which the Bulgarian minority is said to have been subjected by the Kutzo-Vlach settlers. These acts are alleged to have taken place chiefly in the town of Dobritch (Bazardjik) where two Bulgars are said to have been killed, and in the village of Konak. In the latter a band of armed Kutzo- ir alleged to have committed every kind of violence against the Bulgarian population in consequence of the murder of the son and daughter of a Kutzo-Vlach settler - 2 -

in the village of Saranebi. The petitioner, in citing the names of the victims, refers to four murders, four cases of serious mounding and many cases of pillage, beatings and other excesses. The authorities, according to him, aided and abetted these excesses, subsequently arresting a few Buigars in order to deceive public opinion. The petitioner further states that Bulgarian students have been ill-treated at Bazardjik by Roumanian students for wearing Sofia University students’ caps, and that the printing office of a Bulgarian paper in Bazardjik was attacked and ransacked by Kutzo-Vlachs in the presence of a Roumanian non-commissioned officer who was among them.

The Roumanian Government, in its observations rebuts the assertions of the petitioner which, it says, are inaccurate and tendencious. It furnishes detailed explanations of certain of the faots reported, as also of the circumstances in which they are said to have occurred. Its explanations may be summarised as follows :

1. Incidents at Saranebi and Konak.

In the night of October 9th, 1933, a band of some ten Komi tajis armed with rifles and grenades attacked the house of the settler Stere Tujaru at Saraneti. In the course of the attack one of Tujaru's sons and his daughter were mortally wounded and his wife was seriously wounded. Having made their way to the road from Bazard jik to Silistria the Komitajis attacked and pillaged a convoy of oxen, serious­ ly wounding three Kutzo-Vlachs one of whom died following day in hospital. After this new act of brigandage the Komitajis escaped into the forest. Some days later another band of Komitajis recruited from the village of Konak appeared in the village of Sever Radulescu. They wounded two communal guards and ransacked a number of houses from one of which they stole 200,000 lei. As a result of these two attacks some 50 inhabitants of Sever Radulescu proceeded to the village of Konak. There were quarrels in the course of which one was killed and two shops were sacked and a number of panes of glass broken. The local gendarmerie being inadequate for the re-establishment of order the local authorities applied for a platoon of gendarmes which arrested the ringleaders together with nine who were convicted of having taken part in the attack on Sever Radulescu. On the following day two Bulgarians of Konak were found murdered : but the Roumanian Government asserts that in spite of the activities of the authorities, it has not hitherto been possible to prove that the two murders in question were committed by Kutzo-Vlach settlers.

2. Bazardjik incidents.

a) The murder of Nedjo Slavov, keeper of a brothel in Bazard jik, is stated to have been committed in the course of a dispute in the night by an intoxicated taxi-driver. In support of this statement the Roumanian Government submits two depositions signed by Bulgarians. Another Bulgarian mentioned in the petition as having been killed is said to be in fact in custody for participation in a number of burglaries to which he has confessed. - 3 -

b) On August 11th a Bulgarian student was walking in the street wearing a Sofia University students’ cap when certain Roumanian students snatched the cap from his head and tore it in pieces. When brought before the magistrate the students explained their act as a demonstration of reprisals against Bulgarian students alleged to have prevented Roumanian school-boys on a visit to Varna from wearing the caps of the Bazard jik secondary school. It is stated that the relations between Roumanian and Bulgarian students in Bazardjik are now of the best.

c) No complaint has been made either to the police or to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Bazardjik with regard to any attack on the printing office to which the Petitioner refers. The Roumanian Government, indeed, submits explicit statements of two vàtnesses (one of whom is the manager of the paper in question) denying the accuracy of the petitioner’s statement.

While recognising that the responsibility of certain regrettable incidents rests with the Kutzo-Vlach population, the Roumanian Government observes that the incidents are a consequence of provocation and attacks to which the Kutzo- Vlach population has been subjected by the Komitajis. "As regards the attitude under the circumstances of the Roumanian authorities", it adds, "it may be stated that they displayed all r equisite activity in re-establishing order and restoring peace

The Roumanian Government then refers to the activities of the association on whose behalf M. Stoyanoff’s petitions are submitted (namely, the Union of Cultural and Philanthropic Societies in the Dobruja) and states that the association in question is in touch with terrorist organisations, and that its object is to keep alive irredentist agitation in the southern Dobruja. "It is a matter for surprise", the Roumanian Government adds, "that representatives of societies whose object is to disturb by terrorist action the existence of good relations between the Bulgarian minority and the majority element of the population should complain of the reactions caused by their own activities.’’

At a meeting held on May 15th, 1934, the Committee took note of the explanations and arguments put forward by the Roumanian Government with regard to the petition summar­ ised above. Having received an assurance that the disturb­ ances reported in the Southern Dobruja have been limited to individual actions and to the particular localities referred to in the petitions and that they are to-day entirely settled, the Committee did not consider it desirable to pursue further the consideration cf the points raised in the petitions. It accordingly decided to conclude its consideration of the latter without drawing the Council’s attention to the matter.

The Council resolution of tiune 13th, 1929, para­ graph 4 _(i) provides that, when the members of a Minorities Committee have finished the examination of a question without - 4 - asking that it be placed on the Council’s agenda they will communicate the result of their examination by letter to the ether members of the Council f,.r their information.

We have the honour accordingly to request you to be good enough to communicate the contents of this letter for information to the other members of the Council.

(signed) BELISARIO PORRAS, Representative of Panama. Paris, July 5th, 1934.

GUSTAV RASMUSSEN, Representative of Denmark. Geneva, July 23rd, 1934.

J. FOUqUES DUPARC, Representative of France. Paris, July 19th, 19 34.