"The Approximate Truth"

A U.S. newspaperman went to Sofia last week, as special investigator for Secretary of State James Byrnes. The U.S. envoy was Editor-Publisher Mark Foster Ethridge, on leave from the Louisville Courier-Journal. He got a reception as warm and rough as a Bulgar peasant's hand. Ins & outs, vying to impress him, battled for his favor in words and street brawls. The reason for such heated interest: U.S. recognition of the Bulgarian Government will hinge largely on Ethridge's report.

The Communist newspaper Rabotnichesko Delo (Workers' Activity), reflecting the attitude of the Fatherland Front Government, predicted: "We are convinced that Ethridge's mission will facilitate and expedite the conclusion of a just peace treaty with Bulgaria. . . ."

One thing Ethridge had already discovered: even after the savage trials of Bulgarian collaborationists and non-collaborationists (TIME, Feb. 12), there was still a vocal and active opposition to the Soviet's occupation regime. Said the opposition newspaper Zname (Banner): "Mr. Ethridge's sharp eye will not miss seeing many things that some Bulgarians will not or cannot see."

Ethridge himself stuck to fact-finding. He called on Premier Kimon Georgieff and Foreign Minister Petko Stainoff, talked with party leaders and newsmen.

In Rumania, next on Ethridge's calling list, politicians cooked up another warm welcome. Opposition parties stiffened their attitudes toward Premier Peter Groza's Russian-sponsored regime. The Government showed uneasiness on uncooperative King Mihai's 24th birthday, seized Liberal and Peasant party leaders, held them for hours. Otherwise the Groza cabinet continued to ignore the King, passed decrees over his head.

Mark Ethridge, looking and listening, set himself a modest goal: "to arrive at the approximate truth."