Tsar's Coup

Last June a politician's coup made Bulgaria a virtual dictatorship under the leadership of one-eyed, Hitler-lipped Kimon Gueorguieff whose favorite cry was "Our government is neither Right nor Left, but STRAIGHT THROUGH THE MIDDLE" (TIME, June 4). First reports were that this Gueorguieff dictatorship had the full approval of Little Tsar Boris. But royalists in Austria and Hungary, trying hard to recoup their own fortunes through the restoration of downy-lipped Archduke Otto, learned almost immediately that Boris was practically a prisoner of the dictatorship, that the real dictator was not Through-the-Middle-Man Gueorguieff but a sly Col. Damyam Veltcheff. Col. Veltcheff's plan was to force Tsar Boris to sign away most of his prerogatives and become a puppet king.

Poorest of Europe's royalty, Little Tsar Boris sat in his yellow plaster palace at Sofia and waited. Last week came his chance. Scenting a swing in his favor he had refused fortnight ago to dismiss a number of officers as demanded by War Minister General Zlateff, presumably at the suggestion of the Veltcheff-Gueorguieff dictatorship. General Zlateff did a little scouting on his own, then with a shrill whistle of surprise swung to his sovereign's side. It was a wise move. Last week Little Tsar Boris was strong enough to dismiss the entire dictatorship and make repentant Zlateff Premier of a Cabinet that has for its sole platform loyalty to the Tsar.

Bulgarians added a British angle. They pointed out that George V's cruiser London of the Malta squadron arrived at Varna on the Black Sea while General Zlateff was sounding out highly placed Bulgarians preparatory to his switch. Off H. M. S. London stepped none other than Rear Admiral John Knowles Im Thurn, sometime commander of H. M. S. Hood ("World's Most Powerful Battle Cruiser").

In the British Royal Navy few families are closer to His Majesty than the Im Thurns. When George V was "England's Sailor Prince" he tossed off many a Scotch & soda with Im Thurn cronies. Last week a Sofia dispatch passed by the Bulgarian censor stated flatly that when Rear Admiral Im Thurn landed he "had instructions to urge the military leaders in Bulgaria not to do anything that might lead to abandonment of the monarchist form of government."

In Sofia last week beauteous, Italian-born Tsaritza loanna took the Zlateff coup calmly, seemed confident that General Zlateff will do as much to bulwark the non-existent Crown of Tsar Boris as Editor Mussolini has done to make safe the hereditary crown of her father King Vittorio Emanuele III, a holy crown too small to be worn, supposedly fashioned in part out of a nail from the True Cross.

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