TURKEY: Perseverance

Two months ago, when Russia, like a clumsy cat, was trying to get her paws on the elusive Finns, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Shokru Saracoglu talked tough (TIME, Feb. 26). Turkish Defense Minister General Naci Tinaz was busy building military roads to the Russian frontier. Last week General Tinaz resigned “for reasons of health.” Day earlier President Ismet Inönü and Foreign Minister Saracoglu had a 90-minute talk with the British Ambassador, Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugessen, who was about to go to London for a conference. What they told him: 1) “No danger of war exists in the Balkans”; 2) “Turkey does not intend to enter war against Russia”; 3) “Turkey perseveres in her decision to remain outside the war.” With the cat on duty again, the Turkish mice were not feeling so frolicsome.