Britain, Russia and Turkey
The Anglo-Soviet pledge to Turkey will assure the Govern- ment of that country that it can now look for help in a quarter which hitherto had caused continual anxiety. At one stroke the German invasion of Russia banished the fear that the Soviet Government might act against Turkey in collusion with Germany. The identical declarations presented at the Turkish Foreign Office on Sunday by the British and Russian Ambassadors assure Turkey that their Governments have no aggressive intentions, and also promise that they will give help if she is attacked by a European Power. Nazi propaganda has ceaselessly made the most of the differences between Russia and Britain, and has played upon the fear that Turkey might be attacked in the back by Russia if she encountered the hostility of Germany. Now she knows that former rivals are aflies acting in the closest concert and prepared to strengthen her in the defence of her neutrality. They are now, moreover, in a position to make their help effective. Turkey's frontiers march with those of the Soviet Union on the east, and to the south British forces now control the situation in Syria and Iraq. The reservations in the Anglo-Turkish treaty absolving her from any action which would involve her in conflict with Russia lose their force. She has now a double guarantee. The allusion in the British declaration to the Montreux Convention, which gives Turkey the right to close the Straits _under threat of war, is more than an assurance that we have no intention of passing warships through them ; it is a reminder to the Turks not to let Italian warships use them—a very important point at a moment when Germany may be contemplating a sea- invasion of Russia from Rumanian ports.
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