TURKS' CALM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 237, 5 October 1940, Page 10

TURKS' CALM.

BRITISH TRIBUTE

Courage And Consistency Of

Purpose Praised.

British Official Wireless. (Reed, noon.) RUGBY, Oct. 4. "The Times" comments editorially on the fine example set by Turkey in her calm and steadfastness. It says that few countries hitherto excluded from the score of war have had more anxieties to face than Turkey, and none has emerged from the ordeal with more courage and consistency of purpose. Despite the embarrassments imposed on Turkish poljcy by the enigmatic attitude -of Russia and the collapse of Turkey has not flinched in loyalty to her engagements or in her faith in ultimate British victory.

Turkish opinion and the Press have been notably recalcitrant of the blandishments of Nazi propaganda. The German attempt to exploit Turkey as a jumping-off ground in the Middle East once before had brought disaster, and the recent intrigues of von Papen, the Nazi Ambassador, show that these designs still figure largely in German diplomacy.

Mussolini did little to conceal the ambitions he inherited from pre-Fascist Italy of aggrandisement at Turkey's expense.

In the Balkans, Turkish interests coincide with those of Soviet Russia as well as Britain in resisting the extension of the Axis Powers, and Russia is already angered by the German assumption of undisputed control of the Danube and has every reason to be content that the keys of the straits should be safe in Turkish hands.

Turkey's alliance with Greece is proof against intimidation, and # lias been a powerful factor in encouraging Greece to present a firm front to Italy's threats.

The " Times " therefore concludes that to-day there is every confidence in Turkey's capacity to maintain unshaken the role of one of the outposts of freedom and civilisation, and that her will to do so was never in doubt.