NO FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 December 1943, Page 4

NO FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE

IN TURKISH FOREIGN POLICY MR MENEMENJOGLU SATISFIED (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) LONDON, December 9. Turkish foreign policy remains fundamentally unchanged, declaied the Turkish Foreign Minister (Mr Menemenjoglu) in a statement to. a conference of Allied and neutral journalists at Ankara, from which the Axis Press was excluded. He added: “I returned from Cairo extremely contented and satisfied with our conversations. I believe the conference was one of the most important events of this phase of the war. I can say without reservation that we talked about everything and reviewed all aspects of politics. The invitation was addressed to Turkey in the name of the three Allied Powers. M. Vyshinsky was to have represented Russia at the conference, but he was then distant from Cairo, where he has only just arrived, but I wish to stress that even without M. Vyshinsky the Soviets were there. Our alliance with Britain emerged from the conference considerably strengthened. We can also say that our relations with Russia and America are nearly equally as strong. We examined all aspects of problems, sometimes with brutal frankness.”

Asked to what extent Turkey had come closer to the war as a result of the Cairo conference, Mr Menemenjoglu said: “I have already stated that Turkish foreign policy remains fundamentally unchanged.” Asked how Turkey could aid Britain by remaining neutral, he replied: “Turkey’s aid to Britain has been possible only by Turkey remaining neutral.” Mr Menemenjoglu added: “We worked in Cairo with the greatest frankness and reached a thorough understanding.” He said no agreements were signed at Cairo. "The Cairo conference, like the one before it and that at Adana in 1942,” he said, “pointed to the collaboration Turkey could bring to the Allies—a collaboration which sometimes was not very effective but which, as we were able to see at Cairo, is nevertheless precious.” The German news agency, commenting on Mr Menemenjoglu’s ■ statement, says: “Mr Menemenjoglu answered British and American conjecture when he declared that Turkish foreign policy remains unchanged. There is now no point in asking if Turkey is intending to enter the war.”