STRICT RESERVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 November 1943, Page 3

STRICT RESERVE

OBSERVED IN TURKEY REGARDING PARTICIPATION IN WAR. POSSIBILITIES DISCUSSED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, November 16. Though reserve is being maintained in Ankara on the talks between the Turkish and British Foreign Ministers in Cairo, it is generally admitted that an exchange of views occurred on the burning question of shortening the war says "The Times” correspondent in Ankara. The only thing that can be said is that Turkish opinion has undergone a slow, subtle change in the last ;ix months. Whereas formerly Turkish neutrality was regarded as an indisputable axiom, the people now seem accustomed to the idea that the country may be called on sooner or later to show in a 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 the Turkish views. The Turkish Government is scruitizing the situation from the viewpoint of the countrys 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.