TURKEY’S POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25385, 17 November 1943, Page 3

TURKEY’S POLICY

ATTITUDE TO THE WAR MORE ACTIVE PART PROBABLE (Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 16. “Although reserve is being maintained in Ankara on the talks between Uie Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Numan Menemenjoglu, and the Foreign Secretary, Mr Anthony Eden, in Cairo, it is generally admitted that an exchange of views occurred on the burning question of shortening the war,” says the Ankara correspondent of The Times. “The only thing that can be said is that Turkish opinion has undergone a slow, subtle change in the last six months. “Whereas formerly Turkish neutrality was regarded as an indisputable maxim the people now seem to be accustomed to the idea that the country may be called on sooner or later to show in more active form their loyalty to the Anglo-Turkish alliance. The question under consideration appears to be whether this more active Turkish assistance will come sooner, as the Allies wish, or later, in accordance with Turkish views. “ The Turkish Government is scrutinising the situation from the viewpoint of the country’s political and military position in relation to the respective Allied and Axis forces arrayed in south-eastern Europe. Due notice has been taken of Mr Churchill’s statement that decisive battles will probably be fought in 1944.”