Iron Broom

Every Bulgarian voter received two referendum ballots last week. One bore the national colors with the inscription "For the Republic." The other, unembellished, was inscribed "For the Monarchy." Thus even illiterates could easily understand their patriotic duty. Further moral support was provided by the Red Army. Bulgaria's 37-year-old Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty was all but finished.

It was no such gala occasion as had marked the boy King Simeon II's birth nine years before. Then a three-day holiday had been decreed; amnesty had been granted to thousands of political prisoners; Army officers had been decorated. Now, instead of amnesty, the prisons were filling fast; instead of decorations, some 1,900 Army officers got dismissals. The charge: "opposition to the present Government"--the Communist-dominated "Fatherland Front" which was swept into power when the majority party, the Agrarians, boycotted the last elections.

But monarchy versus republic was not the real issue in Bulgaria. Monarchy had been discredited by the late King Boris III, who had led the nation into an Axis partnership. The real issue was: What kind of republic? It looked as if the Communists would give the answer.

Georgi Dimitroff, Communist Party boss, was taking no chances. The Peace Treaty would limit the Bulgarian Army; the remnant must be men the Communists could count on. "Unreliable" civil officials were being swept out of office with what Dimitroff briskly called "the iron broom." In preparation was a National Education Bill containing a codicil about the political, beliefs of professors and students. Next would come a constitutional assembly from which Agrarian leaders feared they would be excluded.

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