GREAT BRITAIN: Secret Offer

Winston Churchill had a big piece of news for the Commonwealth Prime Ministers gathered in London: a secret Soviet offer to the Turks.

Molotov himself, reported Churchill, had sent a message to the Turks offering to withdraw 1) Russian claims on Turkish territory, 2) demands for a share in the military control of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. Both proposals, in effect, add up only to a renunciation by the Russians of something which they have no prospect of gaining anyway (short of a war); nonetheless, Churchill regarded Molotov's message to an ancient enemy as perhaps the most important single gesture...

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