IDENTITY OF VIEWS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 December 1943, Page 4

IDENTITY OF VIEWS

CONFERENCE WITH TURKEY OFFICIAL JOINT STATEMENT BEING DRAFTED. GREAT IMPORTANCE ATTACHED TO TALKS. (By Telegraph—-Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, December 7. The Turkish representatives concluded a three days’ conference with Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt and established a full identity of views, says an official announcement issued in Cairo. It is officially disclosed that the draft of a British, American and Turkish communique, written in the early hours of this morning, is still not completed in’ its final form when a correspondent was told of its general contents before noon. This official joint statement said the conference had been “most useful and fruitful for the future relations between the countries represented.” The statement'also used such terms as “alliance” and “firm friendship” and also said that the general and political situation was reviewed and ■the policies to be followed examined. President Inonu, with a delegation of 15 arrived in .Cairo on December 4 and conferred with Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt. The American Press Cairo correspondent says Turkey in effect moved into the Allied camp today when President Inonu, sitting with President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill in a climax to a fateful series of conferences agreed to the “closest unity” and a “complete identity of interests” with Britain. America and Russia.

Reuter’s correspondent states that Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt completed a settlement with President Inonu last night on military, political and economic problems in the Balkans. The world importance of the talks is obvious from the fact that the Russians accompanying the Turks were present at all the major discussions. It is widely believed that the following problems figured prominently at the conference:—Firstly, the possibility of the Turks playing a more active part in the war; secondly, the possibility of the Allies obtaining military concessions in Turkish territory on the lines of the recent Azores agreement with Portugal; thirdly, a settlement of Turkey’s status as a Balkan power; fourthly.' a settlement of Turkish-Soviet relations; fifthly, the establishment on the eastern front of a solid bloc of Powers from the Arctic to the Mediterranean, corresponding to the solidity of the British-American front.