Turkey the Equivocal
Turkey is playing a very Oriental game. We in this country acknowledge the courtesy with which the new Turkish Ambassador in London before leaving Ankara stressed the words "friendly and allied" in speaking of Great Britain. Those words express the relationship which throughout the war we have cultivated with Turkey, and we felt she had reciprocated by preparing to defend her neutrality in the darker days when we did not expect or ask her to fight Germany. We supplied her with arms and took in exchange goods we did not greatly need. But the time has come when Germany has ceased to be a serious menace to Turkey, and when our alleged ally might even have been expected to give us special facilities for dealing with the enemy in the Near East. But if that was to be ruled out the very least we have the right to expect from a country still acknowledging the Anglo-Turkish agreement is that she should cease to help the enemy by sending him raw materials for essential war industries. But Turkey is not so refraining. On the contrary, she is not only greatly increasing the supplies of chrome to Germany, but actually making deliveries to her from stocks ear-marked for Britain, and depriving us of them. Is such direct aid to Germany consistent with friendship and the alliance with Britain? Turkey may be asked to note the words of Mr. Cordell Hull when he spoke of neutrals who "sent to Germany the essential ingredients of the steel which kills our soldiers." She might remember that in the earlier years of war she held a position of great importance, arising mainly from her geographical situation between the major contending forces in the world war. Her position, thanks to Allied victories, is not what it was. We have done without her active help, and now her active help will soon cease to be a matter of much moment. She would be well-advised to reflect that Germany will not much longer need her chrome, for the sale of which she is abandoning the reality of an alliance.
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