TURKISH STRAITS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22289, 26 March 1947, Page 5

TURKISH STRAITS

BIG THREE PACT YALTA AND* POTSDAM SECRET TERMS REVEALED .(10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, March 25. The State Department has released the complete texts of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements. They- disclose Marshal Stalin at Yalta in February, 1945, sought the revision of the Montreux Convention which covers the control of the Dardanelles. President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill agreed that Turkey should “be informed at the appropriate moment." Later, at the Potsdam conference, President Truman, Marshal Stalin and Mr. Attlee recognised that the Montreux pact should be revised “as failing to meet present-day conditions.” The text says: “It was agreed that, as the next step, the matter should be the subject of direct conversations between each of the three Governments and the Turkish Government.”

The Associated Press says that the Russians now maintain that the agreement sanctions direct negotiations between Russia and Turkey, but the United States contends that any negotiations with Turkey should be made by Russia, Britain, and the United States together. Shock to British People

The Manchester Guardian says it will come as an unpleasant shock to the British public to discover that the coalition Government put it's name to secret clauses which, while they may not have been very important or very fateful in their influence, were still important enough to cause serious misunderstandings between Russia and her Allies and Which were, in any case, a clear breach of democratic principles. “It is true that the events of the past two years have taught us to look askance at open covenants openly arrived at, but a firm distinction should be drawn between private diplomacy and secret diplomacy. “If it helps to secure agreement, let our statesmen talk together in private by all means. But it is essential that any treaties signed as a result of such conversations should be made known in full and at once so that the public of each nation may know where it is going.”