International: New Chapter

Acolytes Molotov and Truman opened the ceremony with becoming simplicity. In Moscow the Soviet Foreign Minister said flatly that he had demanded the return of the Turkish provinces, Kars and Ardahan, back at the Potsdam meeting of the Big Three. At the White House Mr. Truman said he didn’t remember any mention of the subject. Then the high priest of diplomatic confusion took over.

Secretary of State Jimmie Byrnes told his press conference that the disputed Turkish territory had been mentioned at Potsdam. There are no waterways anywhere near Kars or Ardahan, but these mountain districts had somehow found their way into a discussion of European waterways. Whether Russia had wanted them back or not, Secretary Byrnes couldn’t say for sure. Neither could he remember whether Truman, Attlee or Stalin had happened to be around at the time. That would be nice recollecting, implied Jimmie, but he wasn’t that good.

Thus last week before the wondering eyes of Washington newsmen was founded still another chapter—the Potsdam Lodge —of the secret Knights of Yalta (TIME, March 11). Onlookers to the arcane ritual agreed that it was a worthy bearer of the order’s (top secret) motto: “Hazy agreements—hazily arrived at.”