Bargain Week

In the World War Great Britain and Turkey fought each other bitterly in Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia and at Gallipoli. Badly defeated, their country saved from dismemberment only by the vigorous leadership of the late Kamal Atatuerk, the Turks came through the War with a profound distrust of German alliances. They quickly made friends with Russia, traditional enemy of the Turkish Sultanate, and moved continually toward greater friendship with Britain.

Last week this friendship developed into an alliance. In the British House of Commons Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced that Turkey and Britain had agreed to conclude a "definite long-term agreement of reciprocal character in the interest of their national security. In the event of aggression leading to war in the Mediterranean area," added Mr. Chamberlain, "they [Turkey and Britain] would be prepared to cooperate effectively and lend each other all aid and assistance in their power."

At the same time, in Ankara the Kamutay (Turkish parliament) unanimously approved the alliance. Premier Refik Saydam told the deputies that Turkey had once thought that the country's best course was to remain neutral, but that recent aggressions in the Balkans had made neutrality impossible. Not forgotten, moreover, was the fact that Italy possesses the heavily armed Dodecanese Islands, only a few miles off Turkey's mainland.

The once Sick Man of Europe has acquired such youthful vigor in the last 15 years that Turkey now has some 500 military airplanes and a standing Army of 200,000 well-trained men. Mistress of the heavily fortified Dardanelles and Bosporus, Turkey is an ally worth having, and the Turkish signature to the British-inspired Peace Front was a shock to former Ally Germany.

Last remaining big diplomatic job before Britain and France complete their Peace Front (labeled "Encirclement" in Germany) is to sign up Soviet Russia. After weeks of bargaining in secret, both the British and Russians made public their positions, which proved to be not so far apart as pessimistic Britons had feared.

In the House of Commons Prime Minister Chamberlain assured the Soviet Union that any Russian guarantees given in Eastern Europe would not be expected to be operative until the British and French marched--in other words, that Britain and France would not leave the Soviet Union holding the bag.

But the Russians were quick to point out that this arrangement still left the way wide open for the British and French to attend another Munich parley (for which they have no taste). In an officially inspired editorial in Izvestia, Moscow daily newsorgan, the U. S. S. R. demanded iron-clad alliances in which nothing would be left to discussion and in which Britain, France and Russia would automatically guarantee each others' borders and those of other smaller States. Said Izvestia: "Where there is no reciprocity real collaboration cannot be brought about." Badgered by the French, the British Labor Party and even many of his own Conservatives, Prime Minister Chamberlain may very well soon have to pay this price for Soviet aid.

Other power politicking of the week: > Air Marshal Italo Balbo, not to be outdone by Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, interrupted his direction of Libya's war preparations last week to pay a visit to neighboring Egypt. In interviews with the press and King Farouk the bearded Marshal professed friendly sentiments for Egypt, but just to be on the safe side Cairo planned a mock air-raid and black-out after he had gone.

> Polish War Minister Tadeusz Kasprzycki arrived in Paris, first high Polish military man to visit France in three years. Ostensibly bent on "private business," he was nevertheless met at the railway station by French Chief of National Defense General Maurice Gamelin.

> Crown Prince Michael of Rumania last week received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Fuehrer Hitler while Papa Carol was getting a $25,000,000 credit from Great Britain.

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