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Documents Relating to New Zealand's Participation in the Second World War 1939–45: Volume I

21 — The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs to the Prime Minister of New Zealand

21
The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs to the Prime Minister of New Zealand

24 December 1941

My telegram of 17 December (No. 20).

The official notification of Bulgaria's declaration of war expected by the United States Minister at Sofia has so far not been received, but the United States Government have told us that they consider themselves in a state of war with Bulgaria on the strength of the announcement in the Bulgarian Parliament. Owing to the absence of official information, we have so far felt unable formally to recognise page 16 that a state of war exists with Bulgaria, and this attitude is causing us considerable embarrassment since, although the Turkish Government might prefer that we should not be formally at war with Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and particularly the Greek Government have steadily pressed us to declare war on Bulgaria.

In these circumstances we have reached the conclusion that it will be necessary to announce that we regard a state of war as having existed since the date of the announcement in the Bulgarian Parliament, and notification to this effect will be published in the London Gazette not earlier than 27 December; the text of the notification is contained in my immediately following telegram.